Chapter 1198
When the Return to Unity Realm Lord's saber technique came to an abrupt halt—
Whoooosh—
The circular energy that had been rippling outward around Bu Eun-seol's body also gradually dissipated.
By comprehending the profound principles of force and utilizing the properties of external energy, he had created his own Absolute Space, deflecting the unavoidable saber energies that should have been impossible to evade.
The moment Bu Eun-seol blocked the Bloody Tears Seven Forms in a way the Return to Unity Realm Lord had never anticipated—
Shhk—
The Return to Unity Realm Lord slowly retreated, reassuming his stance.
He had realized it now—
Bu Eun-seol was no prey.
He was a predator, one capable of severing his lifeline.
For the first time, the Return to Unity Realm Lord shifted to a defensive posture.
Shhk—
The stance he took was bizarre.
Rather than pointing the tip of his saber at Bu Eun-seol,
he loosely gripped the hilt, letting his arm hang slack so that the blade nearly grazed the ground.
At a glance, it looked like the posture of a commoner who had never trained in martial arts—his entire body devoid of even a shred of tension.
The massive Great Saber swayed ever so slightly beside his leg, like the pendulum of a clock.
'Magnificent.'
Bu Eun-seol inwardly gasped in admiration.
When a martial artist wields a weapon and assumes a stance,
it inevitably reveals something—what technique they might use, what kind of attack they will unleash, and the trajectory it will follow.
But the Return to Unity Realm Lord's Great Saber hung vertically downward,
making it possible to strike instantly in any direction—up, down, left, right, diagonally—rendering it utterly unpredictable where the next slash would come from.
Fwip!
Bu Eun-seol suddenly twisted his body sharply.
At the same moment, shiiiing— a razor-sharp saber energy grazed past his shoulder.
The Return to Unity Realm Lord had unleashed a single stroke, swift as Lightning Flash.
Drip.
Blood trickled from where the saber energy had passed.
He hadn't precisely sensed the attack—
it was pure instinct, honed through countless battles where death had danced along the razor's edge.
'A stance that allows for perfect explosive power.'
Muscles do not generate their greatest explosive force when tensed—
but rather when contracting from a state of complete relaxation.
The Return to Unity Realm Lord had reached the pinnacle of the Saber Path,
so it made no difference whether he was lying down or sitting—he could unleash saber techniques at the same speed regardless.
By completely relaxing his body and letting the weight of the saber rely solely on gravity,
he had transcended the limits of reflex once more, executing a blindingly fast saber technique.
Kreeee—!
A ghastly shriek erupted from Bu Eun-seol's Ink Soul Sword,
and shashashasha—
Razor-sharp saber energy spread across the ground before surging upward toward the Return to Unity Realm Lord's throat.
The fourth form of the Bloody Tears Seven Forms—Desire Death, No Place to Die—had been unleashed in a devastating variation.
The Return to Unity Realm Lord did not move.
He simply raised his hanging saber and deflected the incoming energy with nothing more than a flick of his wrist.
A saber stroke surging from below is
extremely difficult to defend against, as it comes from the blind spot beneath the chin.
Yet he blocked the onslaught of saber energy as if it were a dull, tedious game, his expression unchanging.
'He's already deciphered my methods.'
The ability to evolve mid-battle was not Bu Eun-seol's privilege alone.
The moment Bu Eun-seol had created his Absolute Space—using the profound principles of force to disperse all external energy, shifting between feather-light softness and wall-like solidity, flowing naturally like clouds—
the Return to Unity Realm Lord had already adapted, switching to the Gentle Performance Blade technique, which perfectly concealed both killing intent and saber path,
shattering Bu Eun-seol's newly devised method.
[Haa...]
From behind the pitch-black iron mask, a low exhale escaped, and furnace-like heat flickered in his eyes.
Having nullified even this new technique,
he now prepared to unleash the Bloody Tears Seven Forms once more—to sever Bu Eun-seol's lifeline.
Shhk—
As the Return to Unity Realm Lord raised his Great Saber again,
Whoooom—!
A violent surge of fierce energy erupted like a maddened whirlwind.
Just as the gale howled as if the world itself would crumble—
Flash!
In the blink of an eye, the Return to Unity Realm Lord closed the distance, bringing his saber down to split Bu Eun-seol's skull.
But then—something inexplicable happened.
Though the saber stroke should have been imperceptible to human senses—blindingly fast as lightning—
to Bu Eun-seol's eyes, the trajectory of the Great Saber appeared clear and slow.
'So that's how it is.'
His grandfather's Bloody Tears Seven Forms had been death itself.
But the Return to Unity Realm Lord's Bloody Tears Seven Forms—
had always pursued the Heaven-Destroying Tyrant Path, one that denied even death itself.
'This is the true form of the Heaven-Destroying Tyrant Path.'
When the Death God came for him, the Tyrant King had found a way to escape death.
The answer lay in dominating time itself.
If the Death God came calling, what if one could endlessly stretch the speed of its approach?
What if a single step took decades to complete?
Even if only a single day of life remained, the Tyrant could live for a thousand years.
A paradox of time.
The Return to Unity Realm Lord's Bloody Tears Seven Forms appeared to unfold with blinding speed, but in truth, it was unfolding at an agonizingly slow pace.
In other words, his Bloody Tears Seven Forms did not deliver death to all enemies—it manipulated the flow of time to dominate them.
And it was only because Bu Eun-seol had mastered the Sacred Flower Secret Manual, sublimating external force into principle, that he could now—
Pierce through the flow of power embedded in the Gentle Performance Blade technique the Return to Unity Realm Lord had unleashed.
What had once been imperceptible to him—
The trajectory of the Bloody Tears Seven Forms as the Return to Unity Realm Lord executed it—was now visible.
Sssssss—
Having grasped the principle of Blade Essence, the great saber's movements now seemed sluggish enough to make one yawn.
But Bu Eun-seol focused every fiber of his being, watching the descending blade.
If he let his guard down even slightly—
That blade would become an undetectable streak of lightning, instantly splitting his skull in two.
Sssssuuuu—
As time passed, the great saber's movements slowed further, and the pressure intensified.
It was suffocating—enough to make one vomit blood.
An ordinary martial artist would have died without even understanding why.
Even if they could perceive the temporal paradox—
The pressure, as if the heavens themselves were bearing down, would have crushed their organs before they could react.
But Bu Eun-seol remained utterly composed.
He neutralized the crushing pressure with his inner energy.
And to seize the opening in the slowly descending blade, he moved Ink Soul Sword with microscopic precision.
Compared to a battle of annihilation, where mountain-splitting, sea-rending blade energy raged like a storm—
This silent, static battle—
Was far more precarious, far more lethally dangerous.
Drip.
Sweat rolled down Bu Eun-seol's forehead.
In truth, he was expending far more energy and concentration than if he had unleashed hundreds of Sword Strokes in an instant.
If he made even the slightest mistake?
Even if his skull wasn't split, his limbs would be severed in an instant.
Sssssuuu—
Then, something astonishing happened.
The Ink Soul Sword, moving with imperceptible slowness—
Traced a languid arc, gradually piercing toward the Return to Unity Realm Lord's throat.
In that brief moment, Bu Eun-seol had discerned the essence of the Illusory Speed Still Flow within the Return to Unity Realm Lord's blade technique—
And mimicked it.
Clench.
From afar, So Ok-rim's hands involuntarily tightened into fists.
There were perhaps only a handful of martial artists in the world capable of witnessing such a transcendent, high-level battle.
As the successor of the Three Pure Realms, she—
Not only understood just how perilous this seemingly sluggish fight truly was—
But could faintly predict its outcome.
Please.
She clenched her fists.
Though it appeared evenly matched, the situation was so precarious that Bu Eun-seol's head could drop at any moment.
Her heart screamed at her to rush into the fray, to join forces with him.
But she gritted her teeth and watched resolutely.
Because he could do it.
He would not die by that demon's hand.
As if to prove it—
Even in this deadly situation, Bu Eun-seol's gaze remained unshaken, even brightening.
He was breaking through yet another wall in this life-or-death moment.
Failure meant death.
But success—would propel him to yet another realm.
CRASH—!
Suddenly, Bu Eun-seol's body was slammed into the ground.
His ribs cracked, his organs damaged, blood spilling from his lips.
His left shoulder hung limply, likely dislocated.
Though he had fought on equal footing with the Return to Unity Realm Lord by borrowing the principles of Illusory Speed Still Flow—
The difference in mastery had led to his defeat in this first exchange.
Yet—
The Return to Unity Realm Lord's eyes twisted behind his iron mask.
And Bu Eun-seol smiled.
The Return to Unity Realm Lord had been utterly confident in this strike, certain it would kill.
But despite unleashing his full power, he had failed—and his momentum had diminished by thirty percent.
"I can block it."
Meanwhile, Bu Eun-seol—though his body was torn and bleeding—had his spirit surging as if he had already won.
Because now, he knew he could block every one of the Return to Unity Realm Lord's attacks.
BOOM—!
As he raised Ink Soul Sword, a radiant Shockwave erupted from his entire body.
This time, it was he who took the initiative, launching into an ultra-high-speed close-quarters combat that stood in stark contrast to the Illusory Speed Still Flow technique.
Blood and flesh sprayed forth in the brutal clash.
This had always been the kind of battle he pursued.
And now, he could feel himself drawing one step closer to the pinnacle of martial prowess he had sought all his life.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The Return to Unity Realm Lord watched as Bu Eun-seol, battered and on the verge of collapse, still managed to block his saber strikes.
Whoosh—
With a strange reverberation, he raised his great saber toward the heavens once more.
Kwaaauuuung—!
A bizarre tremor filled the air, and in an instant, the surroundings were engulfed in a violent gale.
Everything on the ground was swept up in the whirlwind, rising into the sky.
Kyaaaaah—!
At the same time, a piercing, agonized wail—like the lament of a witch—echoed through the air.
The Return to Unity Realm Lord had unleashed a killing move infused with the full extent of his lifelong Internal Power.
'Now.'
Bu Eun-seol began channeling the immense power surging within his body, letting it flow outward.
And from deep within, he drew upon a single breath of pure True Qi—the very essence he had refined since childhood through his breathing techniques.
'All force returns to its origin.'
A blue aura began radiating from his entire body as he gripped the Ink Soul Sword in a reverse grip.
Yet, he made no move to attack or defend—merely holding his stance.
BOOM!
With a deafening explosion, the ground within a thirty-zhang radius around him collapsed into a blackened crater.
But Bu Eun-seol remained standing, the Ink Soul Sword still in hand, unharmed.
Without even moving, he had blocked the Return to Unity Realm Lord's strike.
'Now the real fight begins.'
If his counter had matched the enemy's attack, then the next assault would come with even greater force.
Bu Eun-seol gathered every insight he had gained through battle, preparing for a single decisive strike.
'Surviving is more important than defeating.'
Ever since his days as the Ten Demonic Heir,
his sole goal had been survival.
After all, he had never received proper martial training.
But if he could just endure,
he was certain he could decipher his enemy's techniques and dismantle them.
Gaaaaang!
With an eerie tremor, all the power within his body condensed into the Ink Soul Sword in an instant.
But just as he was about to unleash his final strike—
Whoosh.
The Return to Unity Realm Lord suddenly sheathed his great saber and retreated.
A deathly silence fell.
"...What do you mean by this?" Bu Eun-seol demanded.
[At last.]
For the first time, the Return to Unity Realm Lord spoke.
[You are finally ready to fight.]
"Ready to fight?"
The voice that emerged from beneath the helmet was cold and sharp, like steel scraping against steel.
[The Baekri Clan. The True Demon Palace.]
The unexpected answer left Bu Eun-seol stunned.
Why would he have to fight those two factions?
"Why should I fight them?"
[You have already felled one who bore the True Demon's Corpse, yet you still do not understand?]
"The True Demon's Corpse."
Bu Eun-seol's eyes widened.
According to the illustrated book left behind by Dam-jeung, the abbot of Blood Shaolin,
the True Demon's Corpse had been personally delivered to the Buddhist Venerable by the former Martial Alliance Leader, Cheol Mu-heun, so that its evil could be purified and destroyed with Divine Power.
Yet the transparent, wrist-shaped demonic artifact hidden within his robes—
was none other than the True Demon's Corpse?
If those words were true...
then the True Demon's Corpse had been shattered, its fragments scattered far and wide.
"What do you want from me?"
Bu Eun-seol couldn't comprehend the Return to Unity Realm Lord's intentions.
The True Demon's Corpse was arguably the greatest treasure in the martial world.
If he knew Bu Eun-seol possessed it, why hadn't he taken it by force?
Even within the Three Realms, he was known as a madman—so why hadn't he killed him?
What did he truly want?
Whoosh.
Instead of answering, the Return to Unity Realm Lord slowly sheathed his great saber.
[Heh heh heh... Hahahaha!]
Then, he erupted into a deep, bone-chilling laugh.
Plop.
As the laughter faded, his body dissolved into countless streaks of light, scattering in all directions.
He had vanished in the blink of an eye.
"Are you alright?"
At that moment, So Ok-rim, who had been watching from the sidelines, rushed over to Bu Eun-seol.
"Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine."
Bu Eun-seol remained silent, his head lowered, as So Ok-rim frowned in confusion.
"What the hell was that? Why did he just leave?"
She, too, was a top-tier master who had mastered the martial arts of the Three Pure Realms.
Having witnessed the entire battle, she could clearly see who had held the upper hand.
Though the fight hadn't reached a definitive conclusion, there was no denying that the Return to Unity Realm Lord had been dominant.
"But why did he withdraw his blade at the very last moment?"
"I don't know."
Bu Eun-seol shook his head.
"Not a clue."
"You've had dealings with him before, haven't you?"
So Ok-rim wore a worried expression.
"Tell me. Everything."
She wasn't asking out of mere curiosity—she was genuinely concerned.
She wondered if there might be some hidden danger Bu Eun-seol had overlooked.
"Well..."
Taking a deep breath, Bu Eun-seol recounted everything that had happened with the Return to Unity Realm Lord up to this point.
"He might be the blood kin of the Seven Fingers Demonic Blade?"
After hearing everything, So Ok-rim felt dizzy.
"How is that even possible?"
"Honestly... I don't know either."
The Bloody Tears Seven Forms the Return to Unity Realm Lord had used this time—
if anything, it seemed like a counter to the Blade Essence Bu Jan-yang had devised.
To evade death,
one must dominate time itself.
"And besides—"
He reached into his robe and pulled out the wrist he had been carrying.
"According to him, this is the True Demon's Corpse."
"The True Demon's Corpse."
But then, something strange happened.
The wrist, which had been as clear as crystal just moments ago,
now, after being kept inside his robe,
was slowly transforming back into something resembling flesh and blood.
"That's disgusting."
So Ok-rim wrinkled her brow.
"We can't just... burn it, can we?"
This was the same wrist that had remained unharmed even after they had combined their powers to execute the Galaxy Severance technique through the Sacred Flower Secret Manual.
Even if they threw it into a furnace instead of a fire, it would likely remain intact.
Ziiing—
At that moment, a strange resonance emanated from the Dragon-Phoenix Ring on Bu Eun-seol's left wrist.
'Right.'
Before the Return to Unity Realm Lord arrived, this cursed object had been resonating with the Dragon-Phoenix Ring, which was fused with the Nine Heavens Radiant Cloud.
Which meant—
Clink.
Without realizing it, Bu Eun-seol channeled his Internal Energy and removed the Dragon-Phoenix Ring.
Then, he joined it to the wrist, which was now pulsing with blood and flesh.
"Huh?"
So Ok-rim's eyes widened in shock.
A swirling vortex of crimson and azure energy erupted from the Dragon-Phoenix Ring, merging violently.
Even the dark energy contained within the cursed wrist began seeping into the fusion.
BOOM— CRACK!
As the energies of the three artifacts intertwined,
a deafening thunderclap echoed, followed by a blinding flash of light that exploded outward.
Rumble—
The earth itself trembled violently.
The scenery around Bu Eun-seol warped, the surroundings blurring,
then the very ground beneath his feet rippled like water before gradually turning transparent and vanishing.
'This is dangerous.'
He tried to remove the Dragon-Phoenix Ring from the wrist,
but—
Ziiing—
At that instant, time itself seemed to twist—everything around him slowed to a crawl before freezing entirely.
Whoosh—
Before he knew it, the real world had disappeared, replaced by a vast, white void.
Drip—
As he stepped into this space, fissures split open around him, and fragments of the past flickered before his eyes like fleeting shadows.
Thousands of voices whispered in his ears, growing louder before fading into the distance.
'What kind of phenomenon is this?'
No matter where he looked or how far he ran, there was only endless white.
Ziiing—
Then, far in the distance, a black door materialized.
"An exit?"
Bu Eun-seol sprinted toward it.
But the closer he got,
the more fragmented memories surfaced and vanished like shattered glass.
Whoooosh—
Parts of his body began dissolving into countless motes of light, scattering like dust in the wind.
'My body... is disappearing?'
Panicked, Bu Eun-seol poured all his strength into reaching the black door.
Just as his entire form was on the verge of dissipating into light,
Thud—
He barely managed to stumble through the threshold.
Whoosh—
A blinding white light swallowed everything once more, so intense he couldn't open his eyes.
Then, the resplendent scenery of Chengdu unfolded before him.
"This is..."
Bu Eun-seol surveyed his surroundings.
At the horizon's edge, beneath a scorching sun, Chengdu shimmered like a mirage at the end of a heat-hazed road.
The weary panting of camels and horses, exhausted from weeks of arduous travel, seemed to echo faintly.
In the distance, massive golden sandstone walls loomed.
'What in the world...?'
Bu Eun-seol walked toward the distant city.
Murmur—
As he entered the city gates, the mingled scents of sweat from horses and camels, pungent spices,
and the cacophony of countless languages crashing together engulfed him.
'India?'
The soldiers guarding the gates and the merchants haggling under red awnings all spoke in Indian dialects.
Passing through the clamor of camel groans and creaking cart wheels,
Clang! Clang!
The rhythmic strikes of stone-cutting hammers rang out loudly.
"Nashik City?"
Bu Eun-seol's lips parted in disbelief.
This place—was none other than the northern district of Nashik City in India: Mahāsumati.