Chapter 1113
―Let's begin!
The martial artists of the Death Shadow War Unit moved as one.
Lifting collapsed beams with bare hands, pulling carts buried in mud in a single breath—
With practiced ease, they began restoring the village in the blink of an eye.
Their movements were seamless, flowing organically like a single colossal organism.
As a result, what would have taken the government forces three days and nights of relentless effort was neatly completed in just half a day.
"Everything is finished, Lord."
Wi Cheon-gyeong, having completed all tasks, reported to Bu Eun-seol.
The village, which had been in ruins mere hours ago, had regained its original appearance.
This was possible not only due to their exceptional martial prowess but also because they had long been accustomed to such work.
"You've worked hard."
Bu Eun-seol nodded and took out a money pouch from his sleeve, handing it to him.
"Have a drink with the unit members before returning."
"I'll gratefully accept the thought alone."
Wi Cheon-gyeong shook his head and politely declined.
"If there's money to spare for drinks, it would be better spent buying even a handful more provisions for the villagers."
Though Bu Eun-seol possessed wealth rivaling the richest magnates of the realm,
his resources were not infinite.
Moreover, maintaining the vast intelligence network of the Death Soul Squad across the land and funding the Grand Design required staggering expenditures.
The martial artists of the Death Shadow War Unit, well aware of this, eschewed luxury and upheld frugality as a virtue.
This was not mere loyalty—
but the pride of comrades who shared Bu Eun-seol's commitment to the Greater Righteousness.
"Hmm."
Bu Eun-seol felt both reassured and slightly guilty.
"Still, this time, go with the unit members."
He pressed the pouch into Wi Cheon-gyeong's hand.
"If I don't even buy them a drink after such hard work, they'll all call me a miser behind my back."
"Then why not join us?"
At Wi Cheon-gyeong's words, Bu Eun-seol shook his head.
"I'll stay and observe a little longer."
Even after the unit members had flawlessly restored the village and offered aid, Bu Eun-seol always personally verified and inspected everything once more.
Knowing this well, Wi Cheon-gyeong had no choice but to bow in acknowledgment.
"Understood."
Bu Eun-seol spent the night walking through the flood-stricken village, meticulously checking every detail.
Before he knew it, deep night had fallen.
Gazing at the distant sky, he saw the moonlight shining brilliantly, and a crisp breeze swept past.
From far beyond, the drunken songs of revelers and the laughter of courtesans seemed to drift from Chengdu.
The endlessly tranquil and beautiful nightscape made his throat itch with the sudden urge for a drink.
"Perhaps I shouldn't have given away all the money."
He rummaged through his sleeves, but all he found were the Spirit Pills he always carried.
Suddenly, he glanced at Mokhun Sword and chuckled dryly.
"Should I pawn you for a drink?"
Wooong.
In response, the sword emitted a low, displeased hum.
"Just joking."
Rarely flashing a bright smile, Bu Eun-seol gazed at the distant mountains and murmured,
"Not drunk on fine wine, but drunk on moonlight. If I can't indulge in liquor, I'll drown myself in the night's beauty instead."
With his spirits unusually lifted, Bu Eun-seol clasped his hands behind his back and unfolded a movement technique so ethereal it seemed fit for an immortal.
Whoosh.
His sleeves fluttered once in the night wind—
and in an instant, his body silently alighted upon a dew-kissed blade of grass in a moonlit clearing atop the cliffs.
Time itself seemed to have frozen around him, and the mist spreading in all directions blurred the boundary between earth and sky.
Standing as if upon the clouds, Bu Eun-seol took a deep breath.
Beyond the twisted branches of an ancient tree, the moonlight painted a dreamlike scene where reality and illusion became indistinguishable.
"Hmm."
Amidst the cool air tinged with the scent of damp earth, Bu Eun-seol stood quietly, becoming part of this otherworldly landscape.
Sssss.
But then, piercing through that perfect silence, came the faintest whisper of the Sound of Breaking Air, thin as a thread.
At the same time, a voice as clear and melodious as a bead rolling across silk
briefly alighted on Bu Eun-seol's ears like a butterfly lost in the mist.
'Who could be in such a remote place?'
Bu Eun-seol closed his eyes for a moment.
Instantly, his Extrasensory Perception sharpened and amplified, allowing him to pinpoint the faint sound's origin.
'It sounds like someone stifling pain.'
Following the sound, he parted the mist and advanced—until the figure of a woman came into view, sitting alone with her back against a large rock.
Her silken hair, bathed in cascading moonlight, seemed dusted with silver powder.
Her snow-white skin contrasted with rose-pink lips,
and her hazy eyes held a gaze as though she had forgotten all the world's sorrows.
She was a beauty so dreamlike, it was hard to believe she was human.
Unconsciously, Bu Eun-seol stared at her blankly.
The woman, leaning against the ancient tree, turned her head and met his gaze.
Plip.
The faint, muffled low hum vanished like mist.
"I've disturbed your reverie."
Bu Eun-seol, looking at the startled woman, clasped his hands together politely.
"My apologies."
In the martial world, people were free-spirited by nature, so there was no reason to avoid a chance encounter between a young man and woman.
However, given the late hour and the deep, secluded woods, he had intended to withdraw from the scene.
Ziiing.
Just then, a faint glimmer flickered from the fingers of the woman standing with her hands clasped behind her back.
But Bu Eun-seol failed to notice it.
And how could he? The light gathered at her fingertips was not the kind that even a master with extraordinary extrasensory perception could detect—not the ripple of killing intent or qi, but a manifestation of pure will.
Whoosh.
At that moment, the sound of breaking air accompanied the rustling of countless masters darting through the branches.
'Don't tell me...'
Bu Eun-seol halted mid-step.
The realization struck him—that a young woman like her, crouching alone in the misty depths of the forest in the dead of night, was anything but normal.
'Was she hiding from enemies?'
The moment he grasped the situation and turned to leave, the woman, who had been concentrating light in her fingers, subtly withdrew her hand.
"Have you incurred someone's wrath?"
The woman merely blinked her large eyes, offering no reply.
Unable to discern even a trace of emotion in her gaze, Bu Eun-seol felt a flicker of puzzlement.
'She couldn't have reached the perfect Realm of No-Mind... Is she someone as pure as a child?'
Assuming she possessed an innocent heart, he spoke cautiously.
"It seems people with ill intentions are headed this way."
Rustle.
As the woman shifted her shoulders slightly, blood seeped through the fabric of her robes.
She appeared to have suffered a sharp sword wound.
"Do not worry. I'll lend you a hand."
Whoosh.
Just then, figures clad in black emerged.
Grrroowl.
Strange, swirling energies coiled around their bodies, their eyes gleaming with menace.
'The Three Realms?'
They wore the eerie, glossy masks used by Messengers of the Three Realms, and from their entire beings surged not only an overwhelming pulse of True Qi but also a storm of supernatural power akin to that of the One Hundred and Eight Stars.
'If that many of them attack at once, it'll be trouble.'
Their presence was incomparably more formidable than any Messenger of the Three Realms he had encountered before.
If he fought them here—
The woman could be caught in the crossfire and gravely injured.
'No choice.'
Saving her took priority.
"Forgive me."
Grab.
Without hesitation, Bu Eun-seol seized the woman's hand.
CRASH!
In an instant, he unleashed his movement technique and fled the scene.
Fwooosh!
The moment they began their escape, the ground split open—
And arrows of eerie flame shot skyward, surging toward Bu Eun-seol as he sprinted.
Swish-swish-SWISH!
Executing Swift Shadowless, he weaved through the attacks, darting through the forest.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
At such blistering speed, shattered branches and stone fragments sprayed in all directions.
He didn't forget to envelop the woman in protective astral energy to shield her from harm.
"Do not worry."
Noticing the woman—who had remained expressionless until now—staring at him with wide eyes, he reassured her with a gentle smile.
"I'll take you to safety."
But the woman, as if she hadn't understood, only gaped at him, her eyes bulging.
She seemed both furious and bewildered.
Yet Bu Eun-seol had no time to dwell on it—between maintaining his movement technique and dodging the fiery arrows, his focus was stretched thin.
KWAOOOOM!
Meanwhile, the flames that had been fired suddenly erupted in all directions, engulfing the entire forest—
Whoooosh.
Before long, they began solidifying into walls of searing heat.
His movement technique was so swift that, in response, they had used their supernatural power to forge walls of flame, encircling the area.
'The Return-to-One Realm.'
Among the Messengers of the Three Realms, only the Return-to-One Realm wielded supernatural power like the One Hundred and Eight Stars.
Perhaps these weren't mere Messengers but elite operatives on a special mission.
'I can't use Harmonization here.'
To dispel such overwhelming supernatural power, he'd need to unleash Harmonization at full strength—but doing so now would endanger the woman.
'No choice.'
Griiiind.
Drawing upon his full power, Bu Eun-seol reinforced his protective astral energy and charged toward the wall of flames.
FWOOOM!
He pierced through in an instant—but just as quickly, his protective energy melted away like wax.
This was no ordinary barrier of fire—it was imbued with a bizarre supernatural power.
KWA-BOOM!
Immediately after, a massive fireball hurtled toward him.
The wall wasn't just a blockade—it forcibly extinguished the strength of anyone who breached it.
They had set this up as an inescapable, lethal trap.
KWAOOOOM!
As the inferno surged toward Bu Eun-seol's face—
KWA-BANG!
He instead doubled the speed of his movement technique, twisting his body mid-air.
THUD!
Then, he turned his back and took the brunt of the fireball head-on.
Ssssss—
White smoke billowed from his seared flesh as his robes and skin melted away.
A dizzying pain shattered his vision.
He had taken the flames—forged by supernatural power—upon his bare body to shield the woman from harm.
'Ugh.'
Though the agony threatened to plunge his sight into darkness, Bu Eun-seol paid it no mind and sprinted forward even faster.
Finally breaking free from the forest, he—
KWAOOO!
—unleashed the Land-Flying Technique, propelling himself skyward in an instant.
But the Messengers of the Return-to-One Realm were no ordinary opponents either.
FWASH!
They, too, transformed into a mass of flames and surged after Bu Eun-seol as he soared through the air.
'Not a chance.'
Thickening his Protective Astral Energy, Bu Eun-seol finally activated the Heavenly Light Endless Art.
KWAANG!
With a deafening roar, his figure became a streak of light, slicing across the night sky.
KWAOOO!
After flying for what felt like an eternity, a bright sun had already risen.
Once he could no longer sense the pursuers behind him, Bu Eun-seol paused midair for a moment.
'A place like this...?'
As he surveyed his surroundings, his gaze fell upon the distant Cloud Forest Mountain below—where the scenery of a mysterious Secluded Valley unfolded before him.
'Was there always a Secluded Valley here?'
If there existed a secret garden crafted by the gods, would it not look exactly like this?
Sheer cliffs, as though carved by blades, encircled the land like unyielding fortress walls, severing all ties to the mortal world.
And at the heart of this majestic isolation—
A lake, cradling the sky's azure in its entirety, shimmered like a flawless piece of jade.
Tap.
As if entranced, Bu Eun-seol descended without hesitation.
"My apologies."
Carefully setting the woman down, he suppressed the searing pain blazing across his back and tore off the charred remnants of his robe, tossing it aside.
Sssss—
The Protective Clothing, which even a treasured blade could not rend, had half-melted away.
'How vicious.'
To think it could melt even a millennium-old Protective Clothing in an instant...
Had he refused Yu Un-ryong's insistence and not worn it—
He would have suffered fatal injuries.
Even with its protection, there were spots where his flesh had still been scorched away.
Swish.
But Bu Eun-seol swiftly turned his body, lest the woman take notice of his wounds.
"Oh."
As he turned, the surrounding scenery sharpened into focus.
The water was so clear that the pebbles beneath the surface were visible, and fish—like ribbons of multicolored silk—glided effortlessly above them.
Along the lakeshore, ancient trees that had weathered centuries of storms spread their generous branches, casting deep shade.
Unnamed wildflowers bloomed in hues as varied as the constellations, forming a miniature garden of their own.
"Beautiful," Bu Eun-seol murmured in awe before he could stop himself, his gaze flickering toward the woman.
"Don't you think?"
It was as if they stood in a primordial paradise, where every living thing existed in its truest form.
Merely being here—
Felt as though all worldly sorrows and burdens were being carried away by the wind.
Shhk.
Suddenly, a gourd bottle appeared before his eyes.
The woman had retrieved the one hanging at her waist and offered it to him.
Unlike before, her expression was no longer fierce—her sharp eyes had softened somewhat.
Swoosh.
As if urging him to drink and dull the pain, she tilted the bottle toward him once more.
"My thanks."
Pop.
The moment he uncorked it, an indescribably potent aroma of liquor flooded his senses.
Even Bu Eun-seol, who had tasted every rare and exquisite wine in existence, had never encountered a fragrance like this.
Gulp.
A single sip, and the pain radiating from his back seemed to ease.
Despite his vast knowledge, he had no words to describe it—only that the astonishing scent forced his eyes wide open in wonder.
"Magnificent."
Bu Eun-seol thrust out a thumbs-up, unable to stop his praise.
"I once tasted a two-hundred-year-old Fen Wine, but even that pales in comparison."
The woman's gaze remained fixed on his back.
Though the fabric had fused to his skin where the flames had touched, thankfully, the flesh beneath was largely unharmed.
"It's fine. I happened to be wearing this Protective Clothing."
Ssshhh—
Then, rain began to fall from the sky.
As if by unspoken agreement, the two dashed beneath the sprawling leaves of a massive tree.
The foliage hung like a pavilion, offering some shelter from the downpour.
Patter-patter-patter.
The pouring rain would not only cleanse the world but also erase all traces of their escape.
No matter how skilled the Return-to-One Realm's trackers were, they would never make it this far.
Shhk.
Abruptly, the woman stood.
Then, she stretched her palm out into the rain.
Plip-plip-plop.
Droplets began to land on her slender fingers.
Plip-plip-plop.
As if savoring the sensation, she closed her eyes.
'What is she doing?'
She had not been particularly surprised by his Lightness Art, and above all, she carried an air of mystery.
Assuming there was meaning behind her actions, Bu Eun-seol stepped beside her and extended his own hand.
'...Nothing special.'
The raindrops against his fingertips were just that—raindrops.
Stealing a glance at her, Bu Eun-seol closed his eyes as well, mimicking her stance.
Then the sensation of the raindrops touching his skin changed.
Though he had merely closed his eyes, he began to perceive the shape of each droplet.
In truth, falling raindrops are never perfectly round.
With his extrasensory perception, he could discern their upper halves rounded while their lower halves flattened slightly.
The largest drops resembled unfurled parasols.
'Even this could embody the profound subtleties of martial arts.'
Raindrops have no fixed form—they spread into circles upon palms, stretch into teardrops on leaves.
'Could I touch these ever-changing droplets?'
A peculiar epiphany flickered through his mind.
Bu Eun-seol began observing the rapidly falling droplets without shattering them, capturing their instantaneous transformations.
This was a feat only he could achieve—requiring extrasensory perception fine enough to feel individual grains of sand falling onto his palm, and concentration potent enough to extinguish candle flames by will alone.
'Fascinating.'
Merely by mimicking the woman and touching the raindrops...
For a fleeting moment, he entered a state of hyperfocus where all movement in the world seemed suspended.
Through this, his perception of time and space shifted.
He glimpsed fragments of insight into discerning the genesis of even the most minuscule motions.
'If I could unravel this phenomenon through martial principles—'
Just as Bu Eun-seol opened his eyes to contemplate these subtleties, he sensed an odd gaze upon him.
Turning his head, he found the woman beside him studying him with keen interest.
'This feels... peculiar.'
Every time their eyes met,
A strange sensation—unfamiliar and unsettling—brushed against his chest.
Soft yet prickling, scorching yet distant.
Novel emotions, never before experienced, spread from his crown to his toes.
"What sect are you from?"
Bu Eun-seol spoke, awkward and flustered.
Yet the woman remained silent, her piercing stare unbroken.
Unconsciously, he scrutinized her features anew.
She resembled a mystical flower blooming precariously on a cliff's edge.
Her aura—chilling yet bewitching—was something no peerless beauty in this world could ever replicate.
"I am Bu Eun-seol, a disciple of Langya Pavilion."
"......"
"How did you come to be pursued by such vicious foes?"
The woman shook her head.
A silent refusal to share her circumstances.
"My apologies. Forget I asked."
Uncharacteristically, Bu Eun-seol rubbed his nose.
Upon reflection, he had never pried into others' affairs before.
He'd never cared enough to.
"Just a passing encounter, then."
In the martial world, people crossed paths by chance and parted just as abruptly.
If fate willed it, they would meet again.
Plip-plop.
The torrential rain that had drenched the world in cold had softened into a mist-like drizzle.
"Miss."
Bu Eun-seol clasped his hands with a faint smile.
"If our paths cross again, let us meet properly."
With lingering reluctance, he turned to leave.
"......"
The woman's vacant gaze lingered on the gruesome burn scars marring his retreating back.
The wound—where protective fabric and flesh had melted together—was severe enough to make anyone wince.
Whoosh!
With a sound of breaking air, Bu Eun-seol vanished in an instant.
The woman stared blankly at the empty space, her eyes unfocused.
―How beautiful.
The words weren't about herself, but the scenery around her.
Yet the image of him—murmuring like a child with gemstone eyes glinting in sunlight—kept resurfacing in her mind.
Perhaps in his youth,
He had once marveled at nature's splendor with such sparkling eyes.
Because he'd seen something beautiful.
But his cold eyes would never soften like a boy's.
Flicker.
She reached out her hand.
In response, a single radiant star glittered in the distant sky.
Kwa-rung!
With an earth-shaking roar, dozens of black dragons surged from the heavens toward her.
Their scales, pitch-black as if carved from the Abyss's darkness,
Churned hurricane-force winds with each beat of their massive wings, clawing at the lakeshore.
The once-placid lake surface trembled violently, as if stricken with terror.
The dragons' blazing sulfurous eyes—like hellfire—fixated solely on the woman perched atop the ancient tree.
The serene lakeside sky was now blotted out by these colossal beasts, each bearing dozens of crimson eyes.
Despite the soul-numbing horror unfolding, the woman paid no heed.
Kwaaaa!
As the black dragons cascaded toward the earth like a waterfall,
Fwip.
In an instant, they transformed into dozens of black-clad martial artists, prostrating before her.
"Lord of the Underworld."
They pressed their foreheads to the ground.
"We have come to escort you."
The apparent leader spoke with utmost deference, his face still lowered.
"The remnants of the Return-to-One faction who clung to your trail have been eradicated."
Swoosh.
She rose from her seat.
Swish.
With a single rotation, an extravagantly crimson robe draped itself over her form.
The martial artists exchanged puzzled glances.
As ruler of the Underworld, she had always worn muted grays.
Why this sudden opulence?
Still prostrate, they stole furtive looks at one another.
Unperturbed, she strode forward—
Whoosh.
—and dissolved into a swirl of resplendent flames, gradually vanishing into the distant sky.