Chapter 1211
The Absolute Boundary of the Baekri Clan that cleaved space apart.
The World and Realm Annihilation of the Void Extreme Realm that suppressed all unnatural supernatural powers.
In the end, both were results derived from the concept of a "boundary."
A boundary was not merely a division.
It was a fundamental element that composed the world, a principle that distinguished the nature and perception of existence through differentiation.
Yet when the newly devised boundary of Bu Eun-seol's Void Extreme Realm overlapped with the Absolute Boundary of the Baekri Clan—
The sense of "self" grew faint.
The existences of the two individuals within became entangled.
The woman was clearly gripping a broken sword, yet before her stood a figure bearing her own face.
Likewise, Bu Eun-seol found an identical version of himself standing tall before his eyes.
'This is...'
Bu Eun-seol looked down at his own body.
Though his form remained unchanged, it strangely appeared to overlap with the woman's flesh.
As two boundaries overlapped within a single space, they began erasing the borders of each other's existence—
The phenomenon of Twin-Domain Annihilation had unfolded.
This would later become a crucial method for overcoming Bu Eun-seol's future trials...
But for now, with no clear way to comprehend this phenomenon, he could only feel profound bewilderment.
Skkrrrrt—
Then, a tearing sound echoed as the woman began carving into her own body with the broken sword.
Having sensed that this phenomenon had occurred due to something enveloping the Absolute Boundary, she immediately attempted to dispel it.
But when that proved impossible, she resorted to forcibly tearing her own flesh to dismantle the boundary.
After all, a boundary cast alone was fused with the caster's body and its framework.
Uuung—
Only after ripping out a handful of flesh from her emaciated frame did the surrounding boundary finally dissolve.
Shudder—
Then, Bu Eun-seol and the woman's bodies trembled faintly once more.
Having been entangled with the Absolute Boundary, the power of World and Realm Annihilation had intensified further, causing their bodies to undergo a partial reversal.
Their appearances reverted to a more youthful state, and their internal energy dwindled to no more than thirty years of cultivation.
Despite nearly all her strength vanishing, the woman showed no panic.
Shwaaaak—!
As if intent on mutual destruction, she closed the distance with Bu Eun-seol and unleashed another storm of sword flashes.
Flap, flap!
Suddenly, the Ink Soul Sword began thrashing like a freshly caught carp—
Clang, clang, clang, clang!
—and started deflecting the barrage of sword strokes.
Because their martial prowess and internal energy had grown too refined,
the nearly dormant Fluorescent Sword Control technique reactivated.
Snap, snap!
To breach the Fluorescent Sword Control, the woman recklessly pressed forward.
Her flesh tore to the point of exposing bone, yet she paid it no mind and unleashed another killing move.
Clang, clang, clang.
While the Fluorescent Sword Control was active,
Bu Eun-seol carefully observed her sword strokes, unraveling their intricacies one by one.
'Among the Baekri Clan's members, was there ever someone so adept in martial arts and assassination techniques?'
Unleashing the Void Extreme Realm, which erased all power, would leave even the greatest masters aghast.
Unaccustomed to combat relying solely on martial techniques, most would struggle to exhibit their full strength.
Yet this woman fought as though she had long trained not only in martial arts but also in the Hundred-Kill Secret Arts—
Like an assassin who had honed her craft for years.
Even without internal energy or Manifestation Art Energy, she continued the battle with ruthless precision.
Snap!
Closing the distance once more, she slashed horizontally with all her might.
Sssshhk!
At the same time, a sharp needle shot toward Bu Eun-seol's pupil.
Having deliberately swung her sword wide to draw his focus to the weapon,
she executed the opening move of the Tongue-Hidden Flying Needle technique—launching a hidden poisoned needle from her mouth.
In close combat, even the slightest movement could be fatal.
Such fine needles, spat from the mouth, were difficult to guard against and devastatingly effective.
But her opponent was a master of Practical Combat Martial Arts—one who had long fought in close quarters, spitting needles instead of wielding hidden weapons.
Rather than dodging, Bu Eun-seol expelled a burst of qi, deflecting the needle back.
Fwoosh!
The woman hastily flicked her sleeve to knock it aside, but in doing so, exposed a momentary opening.
Sssk—
Bu Eun-seol pressed the Ink Soul Sword against her throat and spoke coldly.
"Enough..."
Fwoo, fwoo!
Yet before he could finish, two streaks of black light erupted from her broken sword.
The shattered blade had concealed hidden mechanisms.
"Vile tactics."
Even the opening she revealed when deflecting the needle—
Bu Eun-seol realized it had all been a ploy to lure him into carelessness. His gaze turned icy.
Every technique the woman employed
not only disregarded life but was steeped in the ruthless Assassin Secret Arts—methods only the most depraved killers would use.
"Just what kind of training did the Baekri Side Family impose to make its unit members treat life so lightly?"
Muttering under his breath, he—
Sshhllk!
—activated the Returning Energy Foundation technique, striking down the hidden weapons and her arm in one stroke.
Yet she had anticipated his move, twisting aside before driving a kick into his ribs.
Ssshk!
At that moment, sparks flew from Bu Eun-seol's left wrist as he shielded his neck.
The kick had been a feint.
The woman had instead aimed to behead him with a lightning-quick slash.
But Bu Eun-seol, recognizing the attack, blocked it with the Dragon-Phoenix Ring, which had transformed into a wristguard.
'Impressive.'
It was no exaggeration to say Bu Eun-seol's martial prowess had reached the level of the Three Demons.
Yet the woman had still managed to predict his techniques and movements, instantly devising counters to match.
Above all, she disregarded her own life—
Repeatedly attempting mutual destruction, making her an infuriating opponent.
No matter how high his martial skill, he was now reduced to a warrior with only thirty years of internal energy.
The slightest misstep or underestimation could result in a fatal wound.
Part 2/4
The woman stepped back momentarily after her decisive strike missed its mark.
She, too, was startled.
Though she had been demoted to the Baekri Side Family for some reason,
she had trained systematically in martial arts from childhood under her father's guidance.
Later, as part of the Twelve Elders Council—one of the Baekri Clan's core organizations—
she had been meticulously selected and trained to eliminate the True Demon Palace's masters,
who could bring calamity to the Martial World at any moment.
And yet, here she was, forced to unleash everything she had honed just to fight someone
who wasn't even a True Demon Palace master, but someone using Martial World martial arts?
Swish!
At that moment, Bu Eun-seol's fist transformed into a hand blade, driving into the woman's lower abdomen.
Even without channeling much internal energy, the force was tremendous, his sleeve taut with power.
The woman leapt back in a single bound, eyes locked on Bu Eun-seol, and unleashed three consecutive kicks to block his attack.
"Impressive."
Bu Eun-seol couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.
The martial techniques she displayed were so vast and profound that their origins were impossible to discern.
Each stance shifted unpredictably, making them difficult to counter.
Good.
Bu Eun-seol, now exhilarated, dashed into her blind spot
and struck deep into her shoulder pressure point using a variation of the Extreme Lightning Confusion form.
The woman swung her broken sword in a wide arc, trying to widen the distance and evade—
Thud.
But her shoulder went numb, her left arm dropping limply.
In an ordinary Martial World duel? This would have been the end—no further risking of life.
Crack.
Yet the woman forcibly reset her dislocated arm and fixed a sharp glare on the tip of the Ink Soul Sword.
At the same time, an eerie light flickered in her black-and-white pupils.
Hiss—
The Ink Soul Sword glowed red-hot before suddenly launching into the air.
What?
Bu Eun-seol gasped.
He had faced countless formidable opponents, but none had ever knocked a sword from his grip.
Even if his internal energy was nearly depleted due to the aftereffects of Void Extreme Realm,
and even if his body had weakened somewhat—
to deflect a sword into the air with just a look?
Such a technique exists?
He had no time to marvel.
The woman's follow-up kick drove straight into his right kneecap.
Never expecting her stance transitions to be this swift, Bu Eun-seol instinctively threw out his left fist to block.
Thud. Sssk—
The impact jolted his entire body, forcing him back three steps.
The moment her foot met his fist—
as if by some supernatural force—the vicious kick twisted space itself and slammed into his ribs.
Fortunately, Bu Eun-seol had redirected most of the force using the subtleties of Deflect Flowers and Receive Jade,
but the struck area still burned with excruciating pain, a numbing shockwave spreading through his body.
Thump.
Meanwhile, the Ink Soul Sword, flung into the air, embedded itself into the ground between them.
A brief silence fell.
The martial technique combined with that eye art was something entirely new—never before seen in the murim.
Bu Eun-seol's mind raced, analyzing its intricacies.
"What's got you so amused?"
The woman arched a brow, her voice low.
Amused?
Only then did Bu Eun-seol realize he was grinning—elated.
It was as if he had been transported back to his early days in the Martial World,
thirsting for battle, craving a desperate life-or-death struggle where blood boiled and flesh turned to ash.
"Because it's a new martial art."
"What?"
"So this is the true essence of the Eight Emperors and Three Stars martial arts."
After a moment's contemplation, Bu Eun-seol finally understood.
The technique she had used—superheating his Ink Soul Sword and launching it into the air—
was a secret form derived from the Eight Emperors and Three Stars martial lineage.
"So the Three Realms sought to restore them."
The Three Realms had cultivated Human Flowers, exploited the corpses of past masters,
all in an attempt to reconstruct the lost techniques of the Eight Emperors and Three Stars.
Though each martial art had its own distinct character,
if fused into one—
they would unleash power beyond imagination. That much was already clear.
"Hmph!"
The woman's broken sword flashed toward Bu Eun-seol's throat once more.
Clang!
Bu Eun-seol summoned the Ink Soul Sword back with Void Object Retrieval, barely parrying in time—
Zzzing—
But suddenly, his energy slackened, his right arm going numb with a prickling sensation.
This must also be part of the Eight Emperors and Three Stars martial principles.
The fused techniques of the Eight Emperors and Three Stars were Seamless as a Heavenly Robe—
their true worth revealed even in a pure martial arts duel like this.
"Laughing...?"
The woman, furious to her very core at Bu Eun-seol's childlike grin—as if this were a game—
Swish-swish-swish!
began weaving not just the Eight Emperors and Three Stars techniques, but improvised killing moves into her assault.
Finger strikes sharp enough to pierce eyes, waist-snapping kicks, and palm strikes aimed straight for the heart rained down.
Bu Eun-seol was forced back several steps with each block,
his throat burning as if he had gulped down scalding liquor with every exhale.
This... isn't the Eight Emperors and Three Stars martial arts. This is pure Baekri Clan technique.
The Eight Emperors and Three Stars martial arts had been adapted for the Three Realms' members—
those who couldn't wield the Baekri Clan's power—by converting Manifestation Art Energy into murim-compatible forms.
But the Baekri Clan's true members could fuse those techniques from the start...
It was inevitable that it would overwhelm all martial arts of the current martial world.
'So that's why she told me to leave the martial world.'
Had he not reached the Realm of Void Transcendence?
Trapped within the Absolute Boundary, he would have had to face the Baekri Clan's martial arts infused with Manifestation Art Energy.
His body might have been torn apart dozens of times by that woman's hands, or he could have suffered fatal wounds.
But thanks to the providence of the Nine Heavens Radiant Cloud,
he had finally been able to define a martial realm he hadn't even been aware of before.
And due to the power of World and Realm Annihilation,
the Baekri Clan's martial arts—capable of splitting heaven and earth,
capable of turning a mere human body into dust in an instant—
had been reduced to nothing more than a dazzling, fantastical display of force.
'Dal-ri.'
The face of his first love, whom he missed dearly, surfaced in his mind.
She had persistently urged him to leave the martial world.
It wasn't because she looked down on him.
Rather, she must have known that once the Baekri Clan and the True Demon Palace's masters emerged in full force,
the martial arts and supernatural powers of the existing martial world would be useless against them.
Swish!
In that time, Bu Eun-seol and the woman had already exchanged over three hundred moves.
Once the woman fully unleashed the Baekri Clan's martial arts, he could no longer defend against them perfectly,
and eventually, wounds—large and small—began to cover his entire body.
But this was her mistake.
She should have left the moment Bu Eun-seol unfolded the Realm of Void Transcendence.
Apart from Ak Mu-ryeong, Bu Eun-seol was Langya Pavilion's foremost master of Practical Combat Martial Arts. Every wound carved new martial insights more deeply into him.
'Ten.'
A flash of light streaked across Bu Eun-seol's pupils as he continued exchanging blows with the woman.
Having previously clashed with masters of the Three Realms who used the martial arts of the Eight Emperors and Three Stars,
he had managed to grasp some understanding of the origins of these martial techniques.
Surprisingly, the woman's techniques contained none of the Martial Emperor's martial arts.
'Of the Eight Emperors and Three Stars, the Baekri Clan only created ten.'
In other words, the Martial Emperor's martial arts did not belong to the Baekri Clan's original lineage.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Even as their battle raged on,
thoughts continued to surge endlessly in Bu Eun-seol's mind.
Four hundred years ago, with the emergence of the Eight Emperors and Three Stars,
the martial arts of the martial world had rapidly advanced.
Meaning, the Baekri Clan had established the foundation for the development of modern martial arts by creating ten original lineages.
And in the midst of that, a genius called the Martial Emperor had appeared,
devising martial arts that could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Seven Emperors and Three Saints.
Just as Langya Pavilion had once blazed like a comet seven hundred years ago, establishing Practical Combat Martial Arts.
'Then—'
Shiik! Shiik!
A whirlwind of razor-sharp energy surged violently across Bu Eun-seol's entire body.
He had unleashed the Martial Emperor's Thirteenfold Qi Induction.
His martial prowess had grown incomparably from the past, and even with only thirty years of internal energy,
he could now manifest three streams of force.
Shiik!
The storm of sharp energy pierced through the woman's sword technique and drove straight toward her wrist.
Fzzzt!
Sparks flew as her sleeve was torn away, but not a single wound marred her wrist.
From the brief flash of silver light,
it seemed she wore a metal bracer similar in form to the Dragon-Phoenix Ring Bu Eun-seol bore.
Shiik! Shwi-shwi-shiik!
Seeing Bu Eun-seol dismantle her sword technique in an instant,
the woman gambled, unleashing all ten martial arts of differing natures at once.
Shiik! Shiik!
But the three streams of Thirteenfold Qi Induction swirling around Bu Eun-seol's body
neutralized each of her opening moves one by one.
This wasn't something Bu Eun-seol had consciously controlled—
the force of the Thirteenfold Qi Induction had instinctively adapted on its own.
'So this was its true power.'
Until now, the Thirteenfold Qi Induction had always seemed somewhat lacking in force compared to the Martial Emperor's reputation.
But its true value lay in the fact that
it was a martial art designed against the Baekri Clan's techniques.
'The Martial Emperor was an enemy of the Baekri Clan.'
A wave of dizziness washed over Bu Eun-seol.
The martial arts of the Martial Emperor—once revered as the foremost of the orthodox path—
had actually been created for the sole purpose of dismantling the Baekri Clan's martial arts?
'Did he learn of the Baekri Clan through the Three Realms?'
In his later years, it was revealed that the Martial Emperor had been a double spy who moved between the orthodox and unorthodox paths.
Then, abruptly, he vanished from the martial world.
Unable to expose the truth, he left behind only a letter proclaiming his innocence
before throwing himself from the Ten-Thousand-Zhang Cliff, ascending in death.
And yet, such a man had created martial arts specifically to counter the Baekri Clan?
'The Martial Emperor must have glimpsed the Abyss of the Baekri Clan as well.'
Bu Eun-seol realized it then.
The Martial Emperor—
that philosopher—just like his father, Baekri Mu-ha, had pierced through the Abyss of the Baekri Clan.
And in the end, he had been a man who sought to stand against it.
Swish—CRACK!
At that moment, with a sound like the heavens being torn asunder,
a broken sword suddenly thrust toward his throat.
Lost in deep contemplation, he had left an opening.
Thwump!
But the broken sword was abruptly deflected upward into the sky,
Fzzzt—!
and the woman, too, was flung back several paces by the recoil.
Shiik! Shiik!
The Thirteenfold Qi Induction coiled protectively around Bu Eun-seol's body,
effortlessly blocking her attacks.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, the woman leaped high into the air.
Seeing Bu Eun-seol wield the Martial Emperor's martial arts—capable of matching her—
she descended at an angle, unleashing a decisive strike.
Vrrrm—
The tip of the broken sword trembled violently,
making it impossible to predict where it would strike or what technique would follow.
Swish!
At the same time, a sharp dagger shot out from within her sleeve.
A cunning killing move—a fusion of swordplay and Flying Dagger Art.
Whiik! Crack-crack-crack!
Bu Eun-seol countered with the Jade-Shattering Fist and Iron Nail Eighteen Kicks simultaneously,
blocking both the sword and dagger.
Shiik! Shiik!
Then, he unleashed all three streams of Thirteenfold Qi Induction
straight into the woman's pressure points.
Thud!
The moment the woman landed, she staggered and violently coughed up a mouthful of bright red blood.
Though she had mastered martial arts rooted in Manifestation Art Energy,
she could not withstand the Martial Emperor's peerless divine technique—the Thirteenfold Qi Induction—crafted specifically to dismantle the martial arts of the Baekri Clan.
As long as Bu Eun-seol wielded the Martial Emperor's techniques...
the martial arts of the Baekri Clan were no longer mysterious or threatening to him.