Chapter 1181
Swish!
The Odd-shaped Sword held captive by Bu Eun-seol's Empty Hand White Blade technique suddenly began spinning violently.
The moment Bu Eun-seol released the blade—
The masked man's arm writhed like a living serpent before—
Whoosh!
The nearly ten-foot-long Odd-shaped Sword bent at a grotesque angle and split the air.
In an instant, the blade vanished from Bu Eun-seol's sight.
But he had already studied the vicious transformations of this sword technique hundreds of times over.
The trajectory of its Sword Stroke was engraved in his mind—no, deeper than that, etched into his very bones.
The moment the sword disappeared—
Flick.
Bu Eun-seol defied gravity, tilting his body horizontally as if pivoting on a single leg.
In that fleeting moment, as the hem of his robes fluttered through the air, the sword's energy grazed past his side—
Slice.
At the same time, a Sword Stroke faster than a spark of lightning swept past his forehead, severing several strands of hair.
Crack!
Though Bu Eun-seol barely dodged the attack, the masked man's Sword Stroke had already completed its next transformation.
The upward-slashing stroke—
had cunningly shifted direction, now thrusting horizontally toward his eyes as he lay suspended midair.
It was a killing strike launched from an absolute blind spot—one that could neither be dodged nor blocked.
Clang!
A metallic screech tore through the air, piercing eardrums.
Bu Eun-seol, who had been fighting barehanded until now—
swiftly drew the Ink-Soul Sword and parried the blade aiming for his eyes.
Clang-clang!
But suddenly, dozens—no, hundreds—of sparks erupted in rapid succession behind him.
Unnoticed, the assassin had activated a hidden weapon device concealed on his left wrist.
Whizz-whizz-whizz!
The instant the swarm of concealed projectiles was about to embed themselves into his back—
Whoosh!Rumble...
The space behind Bu Eun-seol rippled like a heat haze before solidifying into an ink-black barrier harder than steel.
He had unleashed the Willful True Binding, blocking the barrage of hidden weapons with a wall of True Qi.
"So it was you."
A bloody radiance surged from Bu Eun-seol's pupils, stretching endlessly toward the horizon.
The masked man before him—
was wielding the same Sword Studies as the murderer who had slain his grandfather, even employing Wicked Incense's hidden weapons in the exact same manner.
Crack.
The masked man tilted his head, observing the black wall of True Qi behind Bu Eun-seol.
His expression seemed to say, 'The Martial Soul Society Leader... was the Martial Soul Lord all along?'
"Wicked Incense's hidden weapons, that grotesque Demonic Sword Arts..."
The crimson light spilling from Bu Eun-seol's eyes had already begun staining his entire body in blood-red hues.
His appearance now bore an eerie resemblance to the Return to Unity Realm Lord clad in dark crimson armor.
"You must have the Rotting Flesh Decaying Blood poison too, don't you?"
Clang.
In that instant, the masked man found an opening and thrust at Bu Eun-seol's throat—but the blade refused to pierce through.
The wall of Willful True Binding that had been shielding his back had silently shifted to his front.
[Why.]
Bu Eun-seol's voice was low and damp, as if dredged from the Abyss.
A single syllable spread like a living entity, morphing into a black mist that devoured all light from the world.
[Did you kill Grandfather.]
The ashen sky, the desolate wind—everything was dyed in ink-black by the weight of his voice.
"Heh."
At first, the masked man let out a low, pained chuckle—before erupting into maddened laughter.
"Kkkkkkkk!"
Still cackling, he seized another opening and unleashed another sword technique.
A single Sword Stroke split into three eerie flashes of light.
Like phantoms, the blades simultaneously targeted Bu Eun-seol's brow, throat, and heart.
But Bu Eun-seol did not dodge.
No—he stood unmoving, as if dodging was beneath him, enduring the sword energy that seeped deep into his bones.
Slice!
The sound of flesh parting and bone severing echoed through the air.
Though the masked man's blade could cleave steel like paper, all it left on Bu Eun-seol's body were shallow, thread-like wounds.
Three sword strikes swept past like a storm—yet not a single one dealt a fatal blow.
"Kaaah!"
The masked man swung his sword like a madman, but the more he attacked, the weaker his sword's force became.
The speed of his Sword Strokes remained—
but the destructive force behind them was steadily weakening.
Shudder.
Confusion flickered in the masked man's eyes as he halted his assault.
He had clearly pierced vital acupoints—
so why was this bastard moving freely as if unharmed?
Why did his sword energy scatter like mist the moment it touched him?
Only then did the masked man realize—
his Internal Power was slowly draining away, like grains of sand slipping through the gaps between his fingers.
Counterflow Fusion Art.
Bu Eun-seol had elevated this Secret Art—one that manipulated power through internal collisions—to its extreme.
He was forcibly mingling his own energy with the masked man's, annihilating them both in a suicidal technique akin to self-destruction.
Whoooosh.
As the masked man's strength gradually faded—
his expression twisted before he unleashed an endless torrent of Sword Strokes like a waterfall.
But the more he swung his sword, the heavier his body grew, and the duller his blade became.
In stark contrast, Bu Eun-seol's swordplay grew more fluid, more razor-sharp.
Time and again, he had lost power—countless times—yet even in those disadvantageous battles, he had felled mighty foes.
In fact, Bu Eun-seol had long judged that overwhelming strength—the kind that defied human limits—was abnormal, unnatural.
Thus, his ultimate goal had always been—
to reach a realm where he could face and defeat his enemies with nothing but the innate power of a human.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Seizing the momentum, Bu Eun-seol unleashed a relentless barrage of sword strokes toward the Masked Man.
His swordsmanship was exquisite—
Yet, strangely, the tip of his Ink Soul Sword maintained a distance of five or six feet from the Masked Man's body, slicing only through empty air.
Thud!
In an instant, the Masked Man's expression twisted in shock, and he desperately scrambled to widen the gap between himself and Bu Eun-seol.
He had realized the reason Bu Eun-seol's blade kept a fixed distance from his body—
It was because the moment he tried to block or counterattack, an opening would immediately appear, and his vital acupoints would be pierced in the blink of an eye.
This was an unfathomably profound and advanced swordsmanship.
Under normal circumstances, he would have relied on his overwhelming strength to forcibly repel or disrupt such a relentless sword technique—
But now, bereft of all internal energy and physical power, he dared not even attempt it.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
Before he knew it, Bu Eun-seol's sword strokes had accelerated to the point where the Ink Soul Sword in his hand became a blur.
Though the sword's aura never touched him, its tip aimed unerringly at every vital point on the Masked Man's body.
Dodge right—it struck from the right. Block left—it struck from the left.
Unpredictable afterimages of the blade clung to him like vengeful ghosts, disrupting his evasive movements and severing any attempt at counterattack.
This swordsmanship was far more lethal than simply cutting flesh and splitting bone.
Not only did it penetrate the enemy's thoughts and intentions, shattering their spirit and mind—
It also forced them to writhe in excruciating agony and terror, as though their entire body were being flayed by invisible blades.
To counter the sword strokes of the man who had killed his grandfather, Bu Eun-seol had devised yet another Demon Sword.
Slash!
With every stroke, the Masked Man felt as though his entire body were being torn apart.
Flick!
Suddenly, Bu Eun-seol's Ink Soul Sword bent like a serpent.
Much like the Indian Yoga Art, he had rendered his own arm as flexible as a whip.
"Aaaagh!"
A bloodcurdling scream echoed.
The Ink Soul Sword, which had never once touched his body, had finally pierced through the Masked Man's left eye.
"Ghhh—"
Even as half his world vanished in a horrifying sensation, the Masked Man instinctively slashed deep into Bu Eun-seol's left arm.
Splat.
Blood gushed from Bu Eun-seol's forearm, the wound so severe that bone was visible—yet he didn't so much as twitch an eyebrow.
His frozen, glacial gaze seemed capable of turning even searing pain into ice.
[It wasn't you.]
His voice, like that of a Demon King from the Netherworld, dripped with disappointment.
The sword strokes that had killed his grandfather had been far more refined—and far more brutal.
The severed stumps of his arms had been cut as cleanly as glass.
The swordsmanship the Masked Man before him wielded was nothing more than a crude imitation, never reaching the heights of the true murderer's technique.
[Who taught you that swordsmanship?]
"Kkkk-kheheheh."
Instead of answering, the Masked Man let out a grotesque laugh.
[Good.]
Bu Eun-seol smiled faintly.
[That makes this more entertaining.]
Then, from his robes, he retrieved two jade vials—and swallowed their contents in one go.
Latent Demon God Pill and Azure Spirit Stone Fluid.
[Hold out as long as you can.]
Never before had he consumed both of these life-saving elixirs at once—not even for his own sake.
But now, to extract every last scrap of knowledge from the Masked Man's mind—
He would restore his exhausted body to perfect condition.
[That way, you'll have more time to savor the agony of hell.]
Haaaa—
As the elixirs took effect, a radiant, multicolored glow began spreading across Bu Eun-seol's body.
Since stepping into the Martial World, his body had been perpetually exhausted, pushed beyond its limits.
He had deprived himself of sleep to devise strategies, flown across the One Hundred Eighty Thousand Li of the Central Plains day and night to save lives.
No matter how profound his internal energy, no matter how deep his martial arts, no matter how indomitable his will—
He was no immortal, but a human of flesh and blood.
Because of that unbearable fatigue and physical limits—
He had always been forced to fight with only eighty, no—seventy percent of his full strength.
But now, as the two supreme elixirs permeated his body—
Not only did his wounds close in an instant—
The accumulated exhaustion vanished, and his depleted strength surged back like a raging river.
Whoooosh!
Restored to his peak condition—
A dazzling shockwave erupted from Bu Eun-seol's body, shaking the Masked Man like a leaf in the wind.
Instinct screamed at him to dodge—but Bu Eun-seol's movements had already far surpassed his ability to react.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
Before he could blink, Bu Eun-seol had vanished—only to reappear behind him.
Schwing!
A flash-like sword strike, followed by the sickening sound of cleaving flesh—
Thud-thud-thud.
All five fingers of the Masked Man's left hand tumbled to the ground.
"Kkhh—!"
With a strangled cry, the Masked Man desperately counterattacked, slicing a deep gash across Bu Eun-seol's side.
Yet Bu Eun-seol only smiled.
Even as blood spilled from his wound, his grin was so cold and eerie it sent chills down the spine.
Tremble, tremble.
The Masked Man raised his sword again—but his body no longer obeyed.
A numbing sensation spread from his fingertips, his blood thickening like sludge in his veins.
"Ghh—"
[To withstand the poison of the Saint Among Poisons and even coat your hidden weapon with Rotting Flesh Decaying Blood... You must be quite skilled in the Poison Art.]
Bu Eun-seol's smile was frost-laced.
[Now, I'll elevate you to the realm of the Saint Among Poisons—within a quarter of an hour.]
At those words, Bu Eun-seol
began pouring into the masked man's meridians not only his own internal energy but also the accumulated power of the mysterious poisons he had cultivated thus far.
His mastery as the Saint Among Poisons was unique—though he had never formally trained in the Poison Art, he could freely create and neutralize toxins at will.
Because of this, unlike conventional poison techniques,
he wasn't merely injecting poison but transferring the very source of its power into another.
Crackle.
In an instant, the masked man's skin glowed with an unnatural sheen, his complexion improving unnaturally.
When wielded properly, poison could exhibit effects even more miraculous than spirit medicine.
The force Bu Eun-seol was channeling into him was inducing a transformation comparable to Metamorphosis and Bone Renewal.
Huuuuum.
But because Bu Eun-seol showed no sign of stopping, the masked man couldn't move—
and above all, his body couldn't withstand the sudden deluge of poison.
Crackle, crackle.
Gradually, his eyes turned glassy, his expression growing vacant.
Forced amplification of power inevitably creates massive vulnerabilities.
As the masked man was abruptly elevated to the realm of the Saint Among Poisons by Bu Eun-seol's power,
the supposedly unbreakable
fortress of his spirit and mind began to fracture.
[Got you.]
By now, Bu Eun-seol's form had dissolved into the thick darkness, becoming a shadowy silhouette, black mist curling from his lips.
He looked like nothing less than a Demon King descended from the underworld.
Shhhk.
Bu Eun-seol pressed his fingers against the frozen man's brow.
[In exchange for reaching the Saint Among Poisons' realm, I will take your memories.]
Zzzzzzt.
Using the Phantom Restoration, he forcibly tore into the man's psyche, dredging up his memories.
"Kkhh—hah!"
The masked man's face twisted in agony before contorting into a grotesque, mocking grin.
Injecting poison while simultaneously employing a high-level Mind Seizing Secret Art like Phantom Restoration
was akin to burning one's own soul and destroying the body.
An ordinary martial artist would explode on the spot—even for Bu Eun-seol, losing at least one limb was inevitable.
[Doesn't matter.]
Bu Eun-seol muttered lowly,
continuing to pour the inherited poison's power into the masked man's body.
[I can still take revenge with just one arm.]
Crack, craaack.
Now, the flesh of Bu Eun-seol's forearm split like drought-stricken earth,
glimmers of life force and internal energy seeping through the fissures.
The simultaneous use of the Saint Among Poisons' power and a Heavenly Outer Absolute Art like Phantom Restoration
was causing the explosive backlash to tear his own body apart.
Crunch. Craaack.
Skin split, raw flesh bulging through.
But Bu Eun-seol didn't stop.
Drip, drip.
Then, scarlet blood began trickling from the masked man's pupils.
The Phantom Restoration's power was seeping through the fractures in his spirit and mind.
"Kkhieee!"
The masked man thrashed with a guttural scream.
In his frenzy, his mask slipped away, revealing a face too grotesque to describe—
his tongue was severed, leaving only a purple lump of flesh in his gaping mouth, his nose replaced by two gaping holes whistling with breath.
His lips were entirely gone, exposing bare gums and teeth.
His inhuman noise wasn't meant to intimidate—he had never been capable of speech to begin with.
Whoosh!
But then, as if his internal power flickered back to life, the Odd-shaped Sword he had earlier discarded flew into his left hand.
"Heeh!"
Without hesitation, he drove the blade into Bu Eun-seol's chest.
Snap.
Yet the broad sword couldn't wedge between his ribs.
Deprived of strength, the masked man couldn't push further—the blade scraped bone and lodged crookedly.
"Ugh!"
Crrk—craack.
Gritting his teeth, he strained again, but the sword only shuddered, trapped between bone and flesh.
Blood poured, but no fatal wound was dealt.
Huuuum.
By then, Bu Eun-seol's pupils had turned bright yellow.
Phantom Restoration was originally an unfathomable secret art of Limitless Power, meant to dominate an enemy's spirit and annihilate their body.
The method of breaching mental barriers to extract memories only worked against Peak Realm masters who hadn't fully fortified their spiritual defenses.
But to uncover his grandfather's enemy, to peer into the mind of a grandmaster who had reached the pinnacle of Reaching the Summit—
Bu Eun-seol had resolved to sacrifice not just his dwindling internal power and the Saint Among Poisons' might, but even his limbs.
Craaackle.
Just as a chunk of flesh was about to tear from his left arm,
Zzzzzzt.
the world dissolved, and a distant, hazy door appeared before him.
Step. Step.
Without hesitation, he walked toward it.
Sssss.
Instantly, the soles of his feet melted, agony beyond words radiating outward.
Yet he pressed on.
Craaack.
A bone-deep, indescribable pain exploded from his ribs, surging through his entire body.
Likely, in reality, the masked man
had mustered his remaining strength to shatter Bu Eun-seol's ribs and pierce his heart.
The excruciating torment nearly shattered his consciousness repeatedly, but Bu Eun-seol never stopped walking.
The moment he reached the door,
Twist.
something icy and sharp speared through his heart.
Shhhk.
With his last strength, he flung the door open.
Flash!
A blinding white light revealed the visage of his grandfather in his youth.
'Grandfather!'
Bu Eun-seol sprinted through the doorway.
He had to stop in his tracks the moment he stepped inside.
What he had never known until now—
His grandfather's past sins and deeds... began pouring into his vision, flooding his mind.