Chapter 1236
—He wasn't human. He was a monster.
Shudder.
The surviving martial artists trembled uncontrollably, not even daring to consider resistance.
The corpses of those struck by his blade technique were so gruesomely mangled that one couldn't bear to look at them with open eyes.
Thud.
Like shattered toys.
As the martial artists stared at the broken, scattered remains, they finally dropped their weapons.
Resisting a Killing Star like him would only lead to a brutal death.
Far better to show complete submission and beg for mercy—that, at least, might give them a higher chance of survival.
Not far from where the Yangguan Branch could be seen, hidden within the darkness, a beautiful woman dressed in Miao tribal attire observed the entire scene.
"It's over now."
Bu Eun-seol hadn't used martial arts.
Instead, he had wielded his blade as though reveling in slaughter—slicing flesh, carving limbs, tearing out entrails.
"Hohoho."
Her lips curled into a cold smile, her crescent-moon eyes gleaming with satisfaction.
"The demonic energy sleeping within him has erupted. He couldn't hold back any longer."
Everything had gone according to plan.
After leaving the Imperial Palace, she had pursued only one goal:
To ignite the latent temperament of the Great Demon buried deep within Bu Eun-seol's spirit and mind.
But this was no easy feat.
The fact that a man who should have dyed the world in blood and shaken the martial realm had instead lived righteously—
That alone was proof of self-control and willpower beyond imagination.
Yet once before,
The Empress Dowager had succeeded in provoking this very same Great Demon's nature to erupt.
And this time, she had prepared a far more meticulous and powerful trap than before...
The result?
The Great Demon's temperament slumbering within Bu Eun-seol had awakened.
From now on, he would—
Rage against everything that stood in his way, unleash his killing intent, and wield his cruel hands without hesitation.
"No, before that, he'll be branded a martial world public enemy over this incident."
No matter that he had acted to protect the Yangguan Branch—he had slaughtered the Righteous Faction's masters without hesitation.
Had he wished, he could have easily suppressed their assault.
Yet he had not restrained his murderous intent, cutting down every last one of them without mercy.
His methods were so excessively brutal that one could hardly bear to witness them.
After committing such atrocities, the Martial Alliance would surely impose severe sanctions.
Moreover, once demonic energy ran wild, controlling it was nearly impossible... Before long, he would repeat the same slaughter.
"The martial world would never tolerate such a blade technique."
The conditions for being branded a public enemy were complex,
But above all, what the martial world feared most was an "uncontrollable powerhouse."
Even the Demonic Heavenly Emperor and the Blood Demon, despite slaughtering countless lives, had not been immediately labeled as public enemies—
Because their killings had occurred within clear frameworks of hostility, with defined targets and purposes.
They had maintained a ruthlessly restrained attitude, never swayed by emotion.
In other words, even their cruelty was recognized as part of an order.
But Bu Eun-seol had chosen wholesale massacre under the pretext of protecting the Yangguan Branch.
He had indiscriminately slaughtered every master present—Righteous, Evil, or Demonic—without even attempting to distinguish between enemies and threats.
This could only be interpreted not as a calculated decision, but as the manifestation of runaway bloodlust.
"In the end, those cowardly and despicable martial artists don't care about the scale of slaughter—only the method and attitude..."
Excessive killing beyond justification, indiscriminate execution regardless of faction, and the clear impression of being unable to control emotion and bloodlust—
Because of all these factors,
Bu Eun-seol would not be recognized as a grandmaster of the Demonic Path.
Instead, he would be seen as a calamity—one that could lose control and rampage at any moment.
In the end, just like the Seven Fingers Demonic Blade Bu Jan-yang,
He too would be branded with the mark of a Great Demon.
A few days later,
The incident at the Yangguan Branch sent shockwaves through the martial world.
False information about the appearance of the Absolute Demon Saber's treasure map had reached the sect leaders and martial artists.
They had formed a coalition to seize it, launching a swift attack on the Demon Hall's Yangguan Branch.
And upon hearing the news, the Martial Soul Lord had immediately appeared—
Only to mercilessly slaughter the gathered martial artists.
—That Martial Soul Lord?
The martial artists couldn't believe it.
Until now, he had walked a path of unwavering righteousness, earning goodwill not just from the Demonic Path but even from the Righteous Faction.
No matter how blinded by greed for the treasure map the Righteous, Evil, and Demonic martial artists had been—
How could he have committed such brutal slaughter?
Especially when the Martial Alliance's investigation team witnessed the horrific scene firsthand—
Even the seasoned unit members, hardened by experience,
The state of the corpses was so gruesome and revolting that investigators reportedly couldn't stop retching.
Especially the traces where flesh had been methodically separated from bone—
It was more than enough proof that he had shed any pretense of being a hero or righteous warrior, transforming fully into the Great Killing Star of the Demonic Path.
—Even if he is the Heir of the Demon Hall, even if he had justification—
We cannot condone such brutal slaughter!
Led by the Martial Alliance, the sects that suffered losses and those connected to him began uniting their voices.
They intended to impose sanctions against the Martial Soul Lord for his cruel methods and unnecessary bloodshed.
This time, they might overlook it due to the justification, but if he were to lose control and repeat such atrocities in the future—
They needed to officially declare him an Enemy of the Murim, someone they could no longer coexist with.
But then, the Beggars' Sect, which had been jointly investigating the incident, raised an unexpected opinion.
—The Martial Soul Lord... seems to have deliberately slaughtered them brutally as a warning to others.
Though they had yet to regain their former glory,
The Beggars' Sect, now more formidable than ever as an intelligence network,
After investigating the Yangguan Branch, announced a startling conclusion.
—Rather than condemning him, the orthodox and unorthodox factions should be grateful for the Martial Soul Lord's decisive action.
The Martial Alliance couldn't hide their bewilderment at the Beggars' Sect's unexpected declaration.
—What nonsense is this?
Though the Martial Alliance bristled with discomfort, the Beggars' Sect calmly reiterated their stance.
—At first, we wondered how so many could have gathered in such a short time...
But excluding those who were merely incited, most of them were spies planted within various sects or individuals planted by some hidden force.
Re-examine the records of those the Martial Soul Lord executed.
Upon hearing the rumors of the Martial Soul Lord's massacre,
The Beggars' Sect found it deeply suspicious and conducted a thorough investigation into the deceased.
And in doing so, they uncovered an astonishing truth.
—I don't understand what you're implying.
The Martial Alliance was baffled,
But they couldn't dismiss the opinion of the Beggars' Sect, which still maintained the largest intelligence network among individual factions.
Eventually, they too began meticulously re-examining the victims of the Martial Soul Lord's purge.
And what they found was shocking.
—Most of those killed by the Martial Soul Lord were vile criminals, beasts in human guise who had committed unspeakable atrocities!
It was a staggering revelation.
The majority of the martial artists slain by Bu Eun-seol
Were individuals who had committed countless heinous acts—either never exposed or left unresolved.
Among them were those who had murdered their own sect brothers, betrayed friends to monopolize Spirit Pills,
And even those who had slaughtered innocent civilians and plundered their wealth. Many had also betrayed their own sects, leaking internal secrets to outsiders.
—Even the Treasure Map incident was orchestrated by a hidden faction.
Meanwhile, the Beggars' Sect uncovered yet another truth.
The martial artists who had swarmed the Yangguan Branch
Had all been fed manipulated intelligence by an unknown force and incited into action.
However, the true identity of this orchestrating faction—and their motives—remained elusive.
—This is...
The Martial Alliance was left speechless with embarrassment.
They had intended to use this incident to break the Martial Soul Lord's unshakable momentum and curb his meddling in murim affairs.
But if those he killed were all irredeemable villains, and the Treasure Map incident was a fabrication by shadowy forces—
Didn't that mean he had done the right thing yet again?
—Are you saying this was all part of the Martial Soul Lord's plan?
The Martial Soul Lord was already renowned for his meticulous nature and profound strategic cunning.
But to selectively eliminate only the wicked among those who attacked the Yangguan Branch?
Of course, they couldn't claim every single victim had been a villain.
But given the justification of the Yangguan Branch's defense, no one could easily condemn the outcome.
Faced with these revelations, most martial artists concluded
That the Martial Soul Lord must have already identified the sects and individuals being manipulated by this hidden force
And used this opportunity to purge the worst of them.
—How could that be possible?
Most intelligence organizations remained skeptical of such claims.
If the Martial Soul Lord had known all this beforehand,
Why wait until the Yangguan Branch was attacked?
Why force the warriors of the Death Shadow War Unit to risk their lives defending it when they could have acted sooner?
—Perhaps the Martial Soul Lord...
Had been investigating the backgrounds of everyone—from renowned figures down to third-rate martial artists.
Those within intelligence circles knew just how absurd and far-fetched such rumors were, but—
The martial artists thought to themselves, If it's the Martial Soul Lord, then of course he could do something like that!—and in this way, they ceaselessly deified him.
After all, his past actions had been just so.
A superhuman who turned the impossible into reality.
That was the image of the Martial Soul Lord, Bu Eun-seol, as the martial world saw him.
—Did the Martial Soul Lord ultimately purge the villains this time as well?
—He always looks ruthless, yet he stubbornly clings only to righteous deeds.
—As expected of the Demon Hall's next leader.
A bizarre event, unprecedented in the history of Murim, had occurred.
Despite having slaughtered countless martial artists with brutal methods, the martial world had instead begun to praise him.
—The Righteous Great Demon.
Though he walked the Demonic Path, he was just. And before the wicked, he became a ruthless demon who destroyed everything.
To such a man, the martial artists bestowed this strange epithet—one laced with both fear and admiration.
Demon Hall, Hidden Demon Pavilion's conference room.
Darkness filled the interior of the hall, with only faint moonlight seeping through the lattice windows.
In its midst stood Yu Un-ryong.
His usual cold and composed expression was nowhere to be seen; his handsome face was instead twisted in sheer disbelief.
"Just what the hell happened?"
His voice shattered the silence, and from the shadows of the conference room emerged a striking figure.
Eyes gleaming in the dark, his tall, well-proportioned silhouette reflected the moonlight.
It was Bu Eun-seol.
"The killing intent and demonic energy within you erupted, didn't they? How the hell did you single out only the wicked to kill?"
At the time, Yu Un-ryong had desperately chased after Bu Eun-seol, but there was no way he could match his Lightness Art.
In the end, even after running all day, he hadn't even reached the vicinity of Yangguan Branch.
Meanwhile, Bu Eun-seol had finished everything in half a day and had already returned to the Demon Hall.
"Hmm."
At Yu Un-ryong's question, Bu Eun-seol slowly raised his head.
His eyes still faintly glowed red—proof that the demonic energy within him had yet to fully subside.
"Did you deceive even me?"
Before leaving the Demon Hall,
the killing intent and demonic energy Bu Eun-seol had displayed—
even Yu Un-ryong, who had dealt with the highest echelons of demonic experts while handling the Demon Hall's affairs, had never seen anything like it before.
Though he had never witnessed the Blood Demon in his prime, he could confidently say it must have surpassed even that.
And yet, after unleashing such demonic energy—
he had only killed those who betrayed their sects and served mysterious factions, or the most shameless villains of the world?
"It wasn't intentional."
Bu Eun-seol let out a bitter smile as he spoke.
"At the time, the killing intent within me genuinely erupted, and I fully intended to unleash it upon all the martial artists at Yangguan Branch."
Pausing briefly, he looked down at his own hand.
As if droplets of blood still clung to it.
"Unbeknownst to me, it seems I didn't just possess an abundance of killing intent—I had the disposition of a Great Demon. The Empress Dowager likely saw through that and set her final trap accordingly."
Bu Eun-seol calmly recounted the events he had experienced since returning from the Imperial Palace.
"So it wasn't a plan prepared in a short time."
Yu Un-ryong, too, arrived at the same deduction Bu Eun-seol had earlier.
"She must have attempted something similar in the past—and succeeded. That's why she had this method prepared again."
His expression was one of conviction.
"So that if someone with a Demonic Nature appeared, she could turn them into a public enemy of Murim at any moment."
"Correct. I thought the same."
"Then how the hell did you only strike down the wicked?"
Bu Eun-seol gazed into the empty air and spoke proudly.
"I simply followed in Grandfather's footsteps."
"What?"
"Bloody Tears Seven Forms."
Bu Eun-seol's lips curled into a faint smile as he looked at Yu Un-ryong.
"It seems it can detect Evil Karma."
He then explained in detail what had happened at Yangguan Branch.
When he attempted to unleash the Bloody Tears Seven Forms, bloody tears streamed from his eyes, and suddenly, chains within his body coiled around his sword.
Then, among the people, he saw those entwined with the revolting forms of serpents.
And each time he cut them down, the demonic energy and killing intent within him drastically diminished.
"For a sword technique to have such an effect..."
Yu Un-ryong's mouth hung open.
"So the name 'Bloody Tears Seven Forms' wasn't just for show."
He had wondered why such a brutal and overwhelming technique would include the words "blood tears" in its name.
But it truly made one shed bloody tears—
and through them, it could distinguish those who had accumulated Evil Karma.
"No... I don't think it's just that."
After a moment of deep contemplation, Yu Un-ryong's eyes gleamed.
"You said chains in your body coiled around the sword, right? If we're talking about perceiving karma, that seems more relevant than the Bloody Tears Seven Forms itself."
"It might be a combination of both. Grandfather possessed them together, after all."
"Then before obtaining the chains, could it be that your grandfather couldn't see Evil Karma?"
Bu Eun-seol shook his head in response to Yu Un-ryong's question.
"I'm not sure about that."
Even now, he couldn't fully grasp why this phenomenon had occurred.
"What's certain is that it only seems to happen when demonic energy and killing intent explode."
He had since tried unleashing the Bloody Tears Seven Forms again, but neither bloody tears nor chains emerged on their own.
It seemed possible only when the suppressed killing intent and demonic energy within him erupted violently—just as they had when he first arrived at Yangguan branch.
"It feels like your grandfather was watching over you."
Yu Un-ryong smiled faintly.
"Just a hunch."
Bu Eun-seol, who had been staring blankly for a moment,
"Yeah."
gazed into the empty air with a wistful expression.
"Maybe so."
It was unlikely that his grandfather had foreseen all these distant events and made such preparations.
But the knowledge and strength his grandfather had left behind were embedded in his very being, always with him.
So he wanted to believe it.
That even now, his grandfather was watching over him.
"Either way, it's a relief."
Yu Un-ryong lightly tapped his shoulder, shifting the topic.
"After this, the Empress Dowager won't dare lay a finger on you."
Those like the Empress Dowager, who peer into the depths of human spirit and mind to weave meticulous schemes,
instinctively fear what they cannot comprehend.
Even though Bu Eun-seol's spirit had been eroded by madness, he had selectively slain only the wicked.
And in doing so, he had gained immense renown—a process she would never grasp or understand.
Unless she was willing to risk her foundation, she would never dare touch him.
"But you know,"
Yu Un-ryong spoke up, as if struck by a thought.
"I wonder if framing the Seven Fingers Demonic Blade as the Great Killing Star of the world... was also the Empress Dowager's—or the True Demon Palace's—doing."
The plan the Empress Dowager had executed this time
was so precise, so flawless, as if she had long studied the hearts and circumstances of those who suppressed their killing intent and demonic energy.
"There's no way she could've prepared such a meticulous scheme targeting just you in such a short time, right?"
Perhaps, using the same method, the Empress Dowager had branded the Seven Fingers Demonic Blade Bu Jan-yang as a villain,
and then, building on that success, applied the same tactic to Bu Eun-seol.
That was the thought that crossed his mind.
"They're the kind who wouldn't hesitate to use even civilians."
"I've harbored the same doubts for a long time."
Bu Eun-seol replied in a calm voice.
"I've wondered if this might be a grudge passed down from the previous generation."
Yu Un-ryong's eyes darkened.
If even a peerless blade-wielder like the Seven Fingers Demonic Blade couldn't escape the trap of emotion they had laid,
then their roots ran deep, unshakable across generations.
"It's fine. I'm different."
Then, Bu Eun-seol spoke with confidence.
"Grandfather tried to bear everything alone. But I have no intention of doing the same."
Both grandfather and grandson were equally vulnerable to emotion, cutting down countless villains to save others.
Yet one was labeled the peerless Great Killing Star of the world.
And the other... earned the name of the Righteous Great Demon.
That alone
meant Bu Jan-yang and Bu Eun-seol's fates would inevitably differ.
"'The Righteous Great Demon,' huh."
A smile spread across Yu Un-ryong's lips.
"A fitting title."
Truthfully, he had known for a long time.
That in the past, Bu Eun-seol had suppressed the killing intent within him through sheer willpower.
That he had tempered his mind through meditation, constantly battling himself to preserve his humanity.
Because the Bu Eun-seol of the Ten Demons' Inheritor era had been a demon in the truest sense.
Back then, Yu Un-ryong had faced him as an enemy, crushed by his overwhelming killing intent and destructive power.
The reason he had come to admire him
was because he knew the struggle behind it.
The self-control and righteousness that defied even the constitution Heaven had bestowed upon him.
The will to choose to live as a human despite being born a demon.
That was why Yu Un-ryong respected Bu Eun-seol.
Dawn began to break outside the window.
The bloody moonlight faded, replaced by the warm rays of morning sun bathing the Hidden Demon Pavilion. The red glow in Bu Eun-seol's eyes had completely vanished.
"Are you alright now?"
"Yes."
Bu Eun-seol nodded.
"Same as always."
"Then another Grand Design will be added."
"Right. That's actually why I came."
Bu Eun-seol handed Yu Un-ryong a book.
Inside were details about the Empress Dowager—
what kind of person she was,
what schemes she employed,
and how to bring her down... even a far-reaching, intricate plan for the future.
"Hah."
After reading through everything, Yu Un-ryong took a deep breath.
The Empress Dowager would never dream
that testing and provoking Bu Eun-seol this time had been a fatal mistake.
That she was already fated to lose everything.
"Understood. I'll contact 'him' in advance to ensure this plan proceeds flawlessly."
"Good."
The two silently gazed out the window.
There, at the boundary between darkness and light...
they stood shoulder to shoulder, looking toward the same horizon.