Chapter 1125
"It is an order."
Princess Hui-jeong shouted irritably.
"Deploy all forces to eliminate the Empress's troops, including the Thousand Kill Forbidden Cavalry, then return this princess to the Imperial Palace!"
"Such breathtaking selfishness."
Bu Eun-seol sighed.
"How can a princess of a nation order others to sacrifice themselves for her sake? Must all my subordinates march to ruin because of you?"
"Ruin? How dare you!"
Princess Hui-jeong flared up in anger.
"His Majesty is the father of all people, the sovereign. And I am a princess of the imperial family!"
Her expression turned solemn as she spoke.
"Those who raise their swords against me raise them against the imperial family! Do you not understand that defying my command is no different from defying the Emperor's decree?"
"A long and noisy speech—I heard it well."
"What did you say?!"
Whether she raged or not, Bu Eun-seol gazed at the distant sky and muttered softly.
"My promise to the Grand Scholar was only to ensure the princess's safety. I know nothing of the imperial family's schemes."
Schwing.
Then, he drew the Ink Soul Sword.
"What are you—"
Whoooosh!
Suddenly, the sky darkened above them,
Pew pew pew pew!
And arrows began pouring down like rain.
The reinforcements had arrived.
Slash! Paaaah!
Though his internal energy had been completely severed, Bu Eun-seol deflected every single arrow raining upon him.
Currently, Bu Eun-seol stood among the ranks of grandmasters capable of creating new martial doctrines.
Moreover, having faced countless formidable foes—
Rather than seeking ways to block the loss of his power,
He had instead devoted himself to uncovering the secrets of unleashing mighty martial techniques even without any energy.
Just because his power was gone... did not mean he was a helpless martial artist who could do nothing.
Pa pa pa pa pa!
As the arrows intensified,
Flick! Flick!
The Ink Soul Sword twitched like a freshly caught carp, and the Fluorescent Sword Control technique unfolded.
Ziiing.
Thanks to his heightened swordsmanship, the Fluorescent Sword Control had deepened further.
No longer merely deflecting projectiles, it now formed a circular barrier—
As if seamless sword strokes poured forth on their own, leaving no gaps.
Rumble.
When the arrows proved ineffective, the hidden troops lurking nearby began charging in directly.
"Princess, follow me."
"What?"
Without waiting for an answer, Bu Eun-seol broke into a sprint.
Though devoid of internal energy, his movements were swift as lightning, vanishing in an instant.
"Wait!"
Princess Hui-jeong, having barely been exposed to the Soul-Devouring Darkness, still retained her full internal energy.
She could freely employ the Lightness Art.
Whoosh! Thud.
Bu Eun-seol had already entered the deep mountains, scaling the cliffs.
With each leap, his figure soared nearly a full jang high.
Like a squirrel darting up a tree, his agility was unmatched.
His body, tempered to the extreme and trained in the Beast Palace's Study of Beasts—
Allowed him to substitute internal energy to some extent with Beast Force.
"Insane. Was the claim about losing your power a lie?"
Though bewildered, Princess Hui-jeong pushed her Lightness Art to its limits to keep up with him.
When they finally reached the cliff, Bu Eun-seol was already crouched, frantically scattering stones.
"What are you doing?"
"Setting up a battle formation."
Frowning for a moment, he repeatedly rearranged the stones and branches on the ground.
Their arrangement and structure were so peculiar that merely looking at them made one's head spin.
"What kind of battle formation is this convoluted?"
"My focus is divided. Be silent."
"W-what?"
Whether the princess's face twisted in displeasure or not—
Bu Eun-seol turned his gaze away and began adjusting the formation with intense concentration.
How dare he?
She had lived her entire life as the Jewel in the Palm of the Emperor, revered by all. When had she ever been treated like this?
Tremble tremble.
After shaking with fury for a while, she finally steadied herself.
Endure it. Endure.
Given the circumstances, she had no choice but to suppress her anger and bear it.
Splash.
After working on the formation for some time, Bu Eun-seol suddenly peered down the cliff and tossed a handful of stones below.
Roll roll roll.
He spent a long while hurling stones and branches into the raging torrent beneath the cliff—
Rumble.
Then, dissatisfied with something, he dismantled the formation he had painstakingly built.
And again, he threw another handful of stones down the cliff.
Splash, splash.
Repeating the process, he finally halted his movements—
Swoooosh.
By then, a pure white mist had begun swirling over the arranged stones, completely transforming the scenery atop the cliff.
Then he placed another small stone where Princess Hui-jeong stood.
"Stand here quietly."
Bu Eun-seol drew a circle around her feet with small stones, then created an identical circle around his own position.
"Do not step outside this circle under any circumstances."
"It's useless."
Princess Hui-jeong shook her head.
"You know nothing of the Imperial Court Martial Arts," she said. "The royal trackers have keener senses than hunting hounds, and possess secret methods to detect murim battle formations. Deploying a formation like this is practically inviting the trackers to—"
"Understood. Just get inside."
When Bu Eun-seol cut her off again, the princess flushed crimson with rising fury. Yet seeing the solemnity in his gaze, she reluctantly stepped into the circle.
"Fine. Perhaps experiencing it once will be more convincing than hearing it a hundred times."
She entered the circle with resigned determination, adding:
"In the end, you'll have to summon your scattered subordinates from the martial world anyway."
At her words, Bu Eun-seol's lips curled into an icy smile. The princess felt inexplicably irritated but had no choice but to comply.
Whoosh—
Just then, a hundred black-clad soldiers swarmed the cliffside. Their masked faces revealed only unnaturally dilated pupils glowing with eerie light—clear evidence they were employing both the Imperial Court's unique Tracking Art and secret techniques to detect formations.
'I knew it wouldn't work.'
The princess frowned. Even if the formation made them invisible, anyone sharing the same space would inevitably sense something amiss. If these acutely perceptive masters brushed past her...
Rumble—
The hundred soldiers now completely covered the cliffside. Yet something was wrong.
Swish, swish—
Though they moved rapidly to search the area, none detected the formation. Stranger still, they passed right through where the two stood without noticing.
'How is this possible?'
Even with spatial separation, living presences should create detectable disturbances when intersecting. Yet these trackers moved as if deliberately avoiding their exact location.
[How did you accomplish this?]
The princess sent a voice transmission, but Bu Eun-seol remained motionless, silently standing within his circle.
[Can you not hear me?]
As she pressed him, Bu Eun-seol raised a single finger to his lips and frowned.
'Ah—he said he lacks internal energy.'
Voice transmission required threading sound waves through finely spun qi. Without any internal energy, even the faintest transmission was impossible.
'But that insolent—'
Suddenly, white-hot anger surged in her chest. His expression had been insufferably arrogant this whole time, hadn't it?
Rumble—
Finding nothing, the trackers eventually began descending the cliff.
"You!"
The moment they disappeared, Princess Hui-jeong stormed toward Bu Eun-seol.
"Are you mocking this princess? Your attitude from the start has been—"
Before she could finish—
Swoosh—
Dark figures descended again. The trackers had feigned retreat while secretly lying in wait.
"There was definitely movement here."
One masked man's eyes flashed as he detected her voice.
"Burn it all."
The masked men began scattering powder across the ground—Fire Essence Stone.
Whoosh—
As flames erupted around the cliff, the heat penetrated even their hidden space. Bu Eun-seol's formation, derived from the Mind's Eye Mirror, had no power to block external forces.
Bu Eun-seol stared at the princess with withering disappointment.
—Now you'll deliberately get captured to draw out my forces?
His expression seemed to accuse.
[My apologies.]
The princess honestly acknowledged her mistake.
[I acted without dignity, unable to restrain my urgency.]
In the martial world, every word and action carried life-or-death consequences. Though bold and intelligent, Princess Hui-jeong hadn't yet fully learned this bitter lesson—her actions still lacked caution.
"No need for self-reproach."
Suddenly, Bu Eun-seol spoke aloud in his own voice.
"This was within expected parameters."
"What?"
Though furious, the princess knew this wasn't the time for arguments.
"You told me to stay quiet, yet now you speak aloud? Why?"
"They've already detected us."
Bu Eun-seol pointed downward at the cliff.
"Jump down there."
The reason he had hidden by this cliff and laid out a formation—
It was because he had anticipated that Princess Hui-jeong, lacking experience in the Martial World, would inevitably make some mistake.
"Foolish."
Princess Hui-jeong shook her head.
"Do you think the pursuers wouldn't consider the possibility of us escaping downward when they find traces of us atop this cliff?"
She spoke calmly.
"They've likely already stationed trackers downstream as well."
"I know."
Bu Eun-seol stepped closer to the cliff's edge.
"Jump. Unless you want to be captured, endure every torment they inflict, and then be dragged before the Empress Dowager."
"I don't know how to swim."
"It's fine."
"What?"
"Trust me."
Without even waiting for her reply, he leaped off the cliff.
"That man, really—"
She bit her lip.
Originally, the primary objective of this plan had been—
To force the Martial Soul Lord's forces into direct conflict with the Empress Dowager, thereby drawing him to her side.
But this man, even if it meant his death, showed no intention of summoning his subordinates.
And if she were to call the Imperial Palace's secret unit instead? That would only expose her trump card against the Empress Dowager.
"There's no choice."
If she were captured by the Empress Dowager's faction now, not only would she suffer unspeakable torment, but it would also become a fatal weakness for the Emperor.
She could choose to take her own life, but for now, she had no choice but to follow Bu Eun-seol's words.
"How did the plan go so wrong?"
Muttering under her breath, she reluctantly flung herself off the cliff.
Whoosh—
Since her internal energy was intact, she managed to slow her descent somewhat, avoiding the jagged rocks protruding along the way.
But—
Splash!
The sound of her hitting the water echoed loudly.
Ugh.
As the icy river enveloped her body, she furrowed her brow.
Moreover, not knowing how to swim, she flailed helplessly for a long moment.
"Relax your body and stay still."
A low voice spoke, and her body gradually rose from the water.
Before she knew it, Bu Eun-seol had grabbed her and lifted her to the surface.
"What's going on?"
Bewildered, Princess Hui-jeong scanned her surroundings.
How could Bu Eun-seol and she remain unmoved in the midst of this violently rushing current?
"Save the questions for later and relax your body."
Bu Eun-seol, floating effortlessly, held her hand and spoke in a low voice.
"Otherwise, you'll sink again."
"I asked what's going on."
"What you see isn't everything."
Bu Eun-seol replied indifferently.
"The formation I laid above was a decoy. I intended to hold out down here from the start."
If traces disappeared at the cliff's edge, only two possibilities remained—
Either they were hiding nearby, or they had risked their lives by jumping down to evade pursuit.
But Bu Eun-seol had thrown stones below, arranging a unique formation study.
"A formation?"
Only then did she realize that Bu Eun-seol had been tossing pebbles downward while setting up formations.
"Impossible."
Princess Hui-jeong shook her head.
"Even if you could conceal yourself using the mysteries of the Art of Concealment, how could a mere formation halt the river's flow?"
"I didn't halt the river's flow."
Indeed, the river still surged violently.
Yet Bu Eun-seol and Princess Hui-jeong remained afloat, drifting neither up nor down.
"Rapids beneath cliffs like this have a specific flow."
Bu Eun-seol pointed beneath the water.
"If you use certain bedrock formations as the core, you can arrange a formation around them. It can generate a massive whirlpool."
"Even so, why aren't we sinking?"
"Using Water Shadow Concealment and Qi Water Buoyancy—two techniques from underwater formation studies—I created fine upward currents to lift us."
Thanks to the formation Bu Eun-seol had arranged—
They maintained a delicate equilibrium, neither sinking nor being swept away, by surrendering their bodies to the subtle currents.
"Does the Demon Hall possess the formation studies of the Yangtze Waterway Alliance?"
Such advanced underwater formations were only possible for masters of the Eighteen Yangtze Waterway Alliances.
Bu Eun-seol shook his head.
"I just happened to pick it up while moving through the Martial World."
In truth, he had mastered this formation during his time as Eighteen of the Kill-Seeking Unit, carrying out various missions.
Once, he had assassinated the elder of the Yangtze Waterway Alliance—Azure Wave Dragon Yang Sa-mu.
From his residence, Bu Eun-seol had retrieved a secret martial arts manual detailing these underwater formations.
"Indeed."
She nodded, assuming he had obtained the secret manual from the Ten Thousand Demonic Secret Archive of the Demon Hall.
"Well, there's no martial arts manual the Demon Hall doesn't possess."
Bu Eun-seol shook his head and changed the subject.
"If we hold out like this for about half a day, the troops surrounding the area will withdraw. And they'll assume we escaped through another route."
Princess Hui-jeong nodded with an admiring expression.
"Enduring right at the heart of the pursuit—what an ingenious and elusive concealment technique."
Then, as if suddenly remembering, she asked,
"Speaking of which, when we jumped into the water earlier—why didn't you make a single sound?"
"I merely adjusted my posture."
"Posture?"
After pondering for a moment, Princess Hui-jeong soon found the answer.
She had relied on her internal energy to step lightly into the water, but Bu Eun-seol had shaped his entire body like an arrowhead—
stretching both arms forward, clasping his hands together, and tucking his head between them.
"You must have fallen off cliffs often, I see."
To her jest, Bu Eun-seol unexpectedly nodded.
"That's right."
Princess Hui-jeong assumed he was joking and responded coldly.
"A man who has mastered martial arts to the point of soaring freely through the skies—you're telling me you had occasions to leap off cliffs into rivers?"
"Do you think I was refining my internal energy vigorously since the womb?"
"Wha—what?"
"I only recently gained the ability to freely employ the Land-Flying Technique."
Princess Hui-jeong's mouth fell open.
Judging by his expression, he didn't seem to be joking.
"How bizarre."
She had interacted and conversed with people from all walks of life.
"You're like an old man who's lived decades beyond his years."
But never before had she met someone like this martial artist before her—
whose tone and demeanor were utterly inscrutable.
"Now, close your eyes and rest."
Bu Eun-seol spoke.
"The underwater concealment technique will last at most six hours. Use this time to recover."
Then he added an ominous remark.
"This may well be the most peaceful rest you'll get on this journey."
six hours later, just as Bu Eun-seol had said, the effects of the underwater technique gradually faded.
The two were naturally swept downstream by the rapids, but when they arrived, no one was there.
The pursuers lying in wait had already left.
"Have we completely shaken off the pursuit now?"
Chiii.
Princess Hui-jeong, who had instantly dried her clothes with her internal energy, muttered.
"They must have overtaken us by now."
"They'll return."
Bu Eun-seol shook his head.
"Even if they widen their encirclement swiftly, if they fail to find us, they'll eventually have to circle back to the starting point."
"You're quite young, yet..."
Princess Hui-jeong sighed.
"Just what kind of life have you lived?"
Bu Eun-seol gave no answer.
His time in the martial world had been nothing short of a continuous cycle of concealment and pursuit.
During his days as the Ten Demonic Heir, he had survived that tiny Hell Island by hiding and evading.
And from the moment he began his travels in the martial world, it had been an endless repetition—either chasing someone down or hiding to gather information.
Dealing with the Empress Dowager's pursuers was nothing in comparison.
Before long, the night deepened.
Bu Eun-seol searched the nearby village, surveyed the surroundings, and returned with a few hanging garments, leaving silver in their place.
"Wear these."
Though freshly washed, they were old and worn everyday clothes.
Surprisingly, the princess changed into them without complaint.
"Change your appearance as well."
"I never learned the art of face-changing."
"Why not?"
"Those of the imperial household must not learn face-changing."
Princess Hui-jeong shook her head.
"If traces of it are discovered, it's immediate execution."
Face-changing was akin to forbidden sorcery—
something that could shake the very foundation of the imperial family's existence, undermining the sanctity of bloodline and authority.
The prohibition wasn't merely a rule—it was a safeguard to maintain the imperial household's stability.
"I see. I didn't know."
"You seem well-versed in everything, yet ignorant of the imperial family's affairs."
Though her words carried a mocking jab, Bu Eun-seol remained unfazed.
"What reason would a mere martial artist of the martial world have to know the lofty affairs of the imperial family?"
Then, glancing around, he scooped up a handful of mud from the ground.
"Come here. It's time to leave."
"You can't possibly be thinking of smearing that on this princess's face?"
Princess Hui-jeong's eyes widened as she grasped the situation.
"Don't you dare even dream of it."
"I'd say it's better than being captured by the Empress Dowager and suffering disgrace."
"You—!"
She flared up in anger.
"Every word out of your mouth mentions the Empress Dowager—are you threatening this princess?!"
"It's not a threat. It's the truth."
"You're utterly—!"
Trembling several times in fury, Princess Hui-jeong bit her lip when she met Bu Eun-seol's calm gaze.
"Fine."
She reluctantly closed her eyes and spoke.
"If we're caught after this disgraceful act, the blame falls entirely on you."
"Naturally."
Touching the princess's jade-like skin was an act of extreme disrespect.
But Bu Eun-seol reached out—
and without hesitation, began smearing the filthy mud thickly over Princess Hui-jeong's face.