Chapter 1242
The Unceasing Demon Patriarch's demeanor was utterly relaxed.
Had anyone witnessed this scene,
they might have mistaken it for an old friend casually greeting another after a chance encounter.
"Since you found me so precisely, I take it my junior martial sister revealed my location?"
"You knew."
"She has wanted to kill me for a long time, after all."
The Unceasing Demon Patriarch shrugged.
"It was simply impossible for her."
Though his expression remained composed, a swirl of emotions flickered through his pupils.
It seemed there was some untold history between the two—one unknown to outsiders.
But Bu Eun-seol had no interest in such things.
His gaze remained fixed on the gruesomely slain Jang Sam and his family, his eyes burning with fury and contempt.
"Are you enjoying this?"
"Enjoying?"
The Unceasing Demon Patriarch chuckled softly.
"Do you find it enjoyable when you eat a meal?"
"......"
"Just as one eats a meal, I was born with the ability to see malevolent spirits—and to devour their souls."
He lifted a blood-soaked bundle of flesh and continued.
"It is my nature, my purpose, bestowed upon me by heaven itself. There is no enjoyment, nor any regret."
Srrring.
Bu Eun-seol drew the Ink Soul Sword.
There was no further need for words.
Even without Sim Gyeong-yoseon's request... the Unceasing Demon Patriarch was a being that had to be eradicated.
"Before that, let me ask you one thing."
Just as Bu Eun-seol prepared to strike, the demon spoke again, his tone still leisurely.
"That butcher was born with an inescapable murderous heart. Even had I not provoked him... given time, he would have slaughtered not only his family but this entire village."
He gestured toward Jang Sam's corpse.
"By all logic, I have done a righteous deed—eliminating a would-be murderer before he could act. The price? Merely a single morsel of flesh from an irredeemable sinner."
His gaze bore into Bu Eun-seol as he pressed on.
"Though lacking in chivalrous intent, the outcome remains the same: the wicked were purged. So why, then, do you seek my death?"
"Because you meddled in human fate."
"Meddled in fate?"
The Unceasing Demon Patriarch smiled faintly.
"Do you fancy yourself a player in the gods' games?"
His sharp eyes swept over Bu Eun-seol's body.
"Heaven chose me for the Demonic Path. It granted me this power at birth, compelling me to follow the ways of demons—as if by divine providence."
"......"
"Yet you, without reason, seek to destroy me, as though I were a law of nature."
"Sophistry."
"Sophistry?"
A mocking grin twisted the demon's lips.
"When a viper devours a rabbit, it is nature's way. But when I consume the wicked, I must die—is that your argument?"
It wasn't entirely without merit.
Those of the Demonic Path are born bearing the karma of evil, regardless of their will.
From birth, they wield malevolent power and a corrupted spirit and mind, destined to harm humanity.
To ask why they harm others is no different than demanding why a viper bears fangs.
It is a matter of nature—of fate.
"You're right."
Bu Eun-seol's gaze turned icy.
"A viper hunting a rabbit commits no sin."
Surprised by the concession, the Unceasing Demon Patriarch's lips curled into a smile.
"So you admit it?"
"Not at all."
Bu Eun-seol's voice was low.
"But if that viper slithers into a human village and bares its fangs, crushing its skull is also nature's way."
"......"
"If you attack and kill humans by instinct, then by that same instinct, I have every right to kill you."
The Seven Great Demon Ancestors are all beings who bring harm to humanity.
Thus, slaughtering such monsters is no less than humanity's own survival instinct.
"You called that butcher evil? Claimed he would have killed the villagers even without your provocation? Isn't that the gods' game?"
Amber-hued killing intent radiated from Bu Eun-seol's eyes.
"Or do you debate a predator's right to hunt while refusing to accept that you, too, can be prey?"
The Unceasing Demon Patriarch, silent until now, snorted.
"So it comes down to force, then."
"Not force—choice."
Bu Eun-seol raised the Ink Soul Sword to mid-guard.
"You chose to act on your instincts rather than resist them. And choices have consequences."
His voice hardened.
"Do not call evil 'fate' to justify it. The moment you trample on others' lives, you cease to be part of nature... and become a calamity that humanity must eradicate."
"Hahahaha!"
The demon threw back his head in laughter.
"They say your wit surpasses your martial skill... To shatter my 'Soul-Stealing Eloquence' with mere words?"
His earlier rhetoric had not been mere taunting.
Woven into his cunning speech was a demonic art—one designed to strip away an opponent's soul.
"I concede. I tried to kill you too easily."
Sssss—
As the Unceasing Demon Patriarch extended his hand, Bu Eun-seol's shoes abruptly began to melt.
"Instead, I'll ensure your death is as agonizing as possible."
Fortunately, his outer robe was protective clothing, but everything else began to drip away like candle wax.
The Unceasing Demon Patriarch was a disciple of the Poison Spirit Demon Lord.
When his soul-stealing art failed, he immediately unleashed the True Demon Palace's Poison Art.
"I know you can nullify supernatural powers."
The demon's smile turned sinister.
"At that level, poison must be the most fearsome force."
Had he obtained information from the Empress Dowager's subordinate, given his connection to the True Demon Palace?
Or perhaps, like the power of the Ancient Sword Forest—
Did he possess an ability to instantly discern an opponent's capabilities?
Within the Domain of World and Realm Annihilation, where all things naturally revert—
He had already deduced that poison was the most dangerous threat.
"I'll make sure you die in agony."
Tssss—
The smoke rising from Bu Eun-seol's body thickened.
Most of the Saint Among Poisons' power had already faded, leaving only the Poison Saint Body's immunity to toxins.
If he were to unleash the power of World and Realm Annihilation, poison would become an even deadlier attack than before.
Flash!
Then, something strange happened.
Faint cracks began to spread across the skin of the Unceasing Demon Patriarch, who had been pouring his Poison Art into Bu Eun-seol—
Fwoooosh!
Hundreds of luminous streaks erupted from within his body.
It was an explosion of life force.
The energy resisting the Demonic Energy inside him had filled his toxin-saturated body with an unbearable vitality, causing it to swell uncontrollably.
Crrrrack—
The Unceasing Demon Patriarch's entire body began to twist grotesquely.
The light surging through his bones, like flames trapped within cracked porcelain, enveloped his form in hundreds of radiant fissures.
Thud.
Kneeling, the Unceasing Demon Patriarch stared at the countless cracks covering his body and opened his mouth.
"How...?"
It wasn't from a blade's slash or an Internal Energy strike.
The Demonic Energy composing his flesh was slowly vanishing.
Snap.
A sound like taut ropes snapping echoed.
From the gaps in his splitting skin, crimson blood and murky gray motes of light spilled forth.
And with each mote that turned to dust—
His body disintegrated as if an ancient tree, having endured millennia, had rotted away in an instant.
The bonds of his accumulated karma and condensed Demonic Energy were unraveling, and even his essence as a Demonic Path master was dissolving.
Zzzzzzz—
A mysterious pattern glowed along the Ink Soul Sword, and beneath Bu Eun-seol's feet, an eerie emerald mist rose like a heat haze.
Ink Soul First Form.
The Sword Form said to sever all karma had, without notice, already pierced through him.
"When... did you unleash your Sword Form?"
The Unceasing Demon Patriarch shook his head in disbelief.
"I saw no sign of it."
Bu Eun-seol replied flatly,
"I started gradually the moment I arrived."
By now, he had encountered—and directly faced—several of the Ten Great Immortals and Seven Great Demon Patriarchs.
Through those battles, he realized that all of them possessed an innate demonic power capable of overturning the martial world—
Even defying the Laws of nature itself.
Moreover, he discerned that the abilities of the Immortals and Demon Patriarchs mutually suppressed and negated one another.
Meaning—if Sim Gyeong-yoseon had the power to briefly read the memories of the dead—
Then the Unceasing Demon Patriarch must have the ability to read or shatter the minds of the living.
And since he was a disciple of the Poison Spirit Demon Lord, if he fully unleashed his toxins—
Even the power of World and Realm Annihilation would struggle to counter him.
—Must the Ink Soul First Form be executed as a Sword Form?
Before confronting the Unceasing Demon Patriarch, Bu Eun-seol had pondered deeply—
And devised a way to ensure the technique would strike true.
Though called a sword technique, Ink Soul First Form was closer to a method of releasing power aligned with the Way of Nature.
If I know the location of our battle in advance...
Couldn't I deploy it through means other than a sword technique?
That was the idea he hit upon.
—Body-Sword Unity, and the Sacred Flower Secret Manual.
By combining the Body-Sword Unity method—treating his body as a blade—
With the Sacred Flower Secret Manual, the most profound method of energy release in the martial world—
He had invented a way to fire the Ink Soul First Form through his very flesh.
—Tremble.
The moment he first encountered the Unceasing Demon Patriarch—
Bu Eun-seol's fingertips had quivered, and his eyes flickered with light.
Not only was he furious at the massacre of Jang Sam's family—
But he had also been subtly unleashing the Ink Soul First Form through the principles of Body-Sword Unity, ensuring the Unceasing Demon Patriarch would not detect it.
The life energy was released in an extremely minute, steady stream—slowly, imperceptibly.
Crunch.
In an instant, the Unceasing Demon Patriarch crumbled into dust.
A Demonic Sect master who toyed with human malice had vanished into nothingness.
"......"
Even after eliminating him, Bu Eun-seol's expression remained grave as he scanned his surroundings.
After a moment of staring into the distant sky—
Whoosh!
He executed the Qi-Piercing Ascent in a single motion, leaping hundreds of feet upward.
As he gazed down below, sharp glints of light flickered endlessly in his eyes.
"One of the Seven Great Demon Ancestors wouldn't die so easily."
Though clues were scattered throughout the martial world, even the Death Soul Squad's intelligence network had struggled to track the movements of the Seven Great Demon Ancestors.
Yet the supposedly sinister Unceasing Demon Patriarch had lived here openly under the name Seokgye the Scholar, without bothering to hide his identity?
That made no sense from the start.
"Seokgye..."
Seok —meaning stone, an unyielding obstacle like a wall.
Gye —a narrow, elusive stream, difficult to find.
Combined, they implied—
A hidden space, not visible on the surface, as minute as a crack left slightly ajar.
"People unconsciously reveal their nature."
He carefully examined the scenery unfolding beneath him, piece by piece.
"Unceasing, Seokgye, the Demonic Sect that devours the Killing Ghost, fresh corpses..."
As Bu Eun-seol muttered the clues he had gathered so far, his eyes flashed sharply.
"The rock..."
Muttering lowly, he finally grasped everything.
KWA-RUNG!
With a thunderous sound, Bu Eun-seol's figure cut through mid-air.
Before long, he arrived at a mountain not far from the village.
For about an hour, he began combing through every inch of the mountain.
Flash!
Then, a spark shot through Bu Eun-seol's eyes. He had discovered a massive rock face nestled between deep valleys.
"Here it is."
At first glance, it appeared to be an utterly ordinary rock face, but weathered by time, faint engravings were barely visible on its surface.
For something shaped by nature, it bore an oddly artificial... faint silhouette of a Buddha.
Swoosh.
Slowly examining the rock face's surroundings, Bu Eun-seol brushed his hand across its surface.
Strangely, within that cold stone, he sensed a faint warmth.
As if it were a living, breathing creature.
"It'll emerge soon."
Muttering under his breath, he drew the Ink Soul Sword.
PA-ANG!
Instead of killing intent, a surge of vibrant life energy swept across the land, and light began spreading over the gray, desolate earth.
From the withered branches of ancient trees, tender green sprouts emerged, and blooming flowers erupted in bursts of colorful radiance like fireworks.
Ink Soul First Form.
As he unleashed the life-infused sword technique once more, the barren landscape was gradually cloaked in vivid hues.
OOM—!
Just as he gathered all his strength to cut through the rock face—
CLACK.
Suddenly, Bu Eun-seol froze like a statue.
And stood there, unmoving, for a long while.
A martial artist's instinct.
And the experience of handling countless bizarre incidents up to now screamed a fierce warning.
'Something's off.'
Sheathing the Ink Soul Sword completely, he placed his hand on the rock face once more and slowly closed his eyes.
But then.
WHOOSH— THUD.
From the distant sky, a figure clad in Taoist robes descended slowly before him.
A female Taoist, her long hair tightly bound, wearing a tattered robe. It was Sim Gyeong-yoseon.
"Stop!"
She rushed toward Bu Eun-seol, who was still examining the rock face.
None of her usual calm, easygoing demeanor remained—only desperation filled her eyes.
"You mustn't destroy it."
Stretching both hands forward to block his sword, her fingertips trembled faintly.
"If you do... Senior Martial Brother won't be able to become a saint."
"What kind of nonsense is this all of a sudden?"
Bu Eun-seol frowned, tilting his head.
"How could a demonic practitioner ever become a saint?"
"I'm sorry."
Sim Gyeong-yoseon lowered her head.
"I deceived you."
"......"
"The truth is... Senior Martial Brother has been shedding his demonic nature for years, purging his demonic energy to become a saint."
"Didn't you ask me to kill him?"
"Yes. The fake body mimicking him, which was connected to the Demon Seed."
She spoke rapidly.
"But I never imagined you'd uncover his true body."
"I don't understand a single word you're saying."
Sim Gyeong-yoseon steadied her voice and began explaining calmly.
"As I said, we weren't born as demonic practitioners or saints. In our youth, we trained together at the Supreme Unity Gate."
Her eyes grew distant, as if recalling a long-forgotten past.
"But when we turned sixteen... everything changed. Black demonic energy erupted from Senior Martial Brother's body, while saintly energy bloomed from mine. In a single day, we became a demonic practitioner and a saint."
A gust of wind scattered the tattered hem of her robe.
"After that, we had no choice but to leave the Supreme Unity Gate. Senior Martial Brother became a disciple of the Poison Spirit Demon Lord, while I entered the tutelage of the Wandering Saint to begin my training."
As Sim Gyeong-yoseon, she continued her cultivation as a Taoist.
The Wandering Saint had told her she was fated never to belong to the orthodox path, refusing to take her as a formal disciple.
Instead, he only taught her auxiliary Taoist arts, guiding her to wield her power righteously as one of the Ten Great Immortals.
After a decade of training, she wandered the Martial World in silence as one of them.
Then one day, the Unceasing Demon Patriarch quietly sought her out.
In his hand was an ancient, faded scripture.
The Return to Truth Scripture—an arcane manual.
"Junior Sister."
The Unceasing Demon Patriarch's voice was low and heavy.
Clad in black robes, his presence had grown imposing, yet...
His eyes remained exactly the same as they had been back at the Supreme Unity Gate—pure, like the Senior Martial Brother who had once trained alongside her in both martial arts and scholarship.
"After all this time... I've finally found a way to sever the karma of the Demonic Path."
Unfolding the scripture, he explained.
"According to this manual, if one creates a fake body and absorbs the life force of evildoers to petrify it... the true self becomes a living stone, allowing even the worst sinner to transform into a saint."
The Unceasing Demon Patriarch continued.
"Once I shed the fate of the Demonic Path... let's meet again."
Sim Gyeong-yoseon was overjoyed.
Truthfully, back in their days as fellow disciples...
She had harbored feelings for him, yearning desperately for a future together.
If he could become a saint?
The insurmountable wall between them would shatter, and they could finally be united.
"But you must help me."
The Unceasing Demon Patriarch spoke carefully.
"To master this secret technique, we must select those who harbor the murderous intent to slaughter people in the most gruesome ways."
He pointed to the scripture passage in the Return to Truth Scripture.
"Only by devouring the livers of true evil-doers—those who have already stained their hands with the blood of the innocent—can one accumulate virtue, break free from this wicked fate, and transform back into a saint."
Fortunately, Sim Gyeong-yoseon possessed the ability of a saint to perceive people's sins and evil karma.
She complied with the Unceasing Demon Patriarch's request, locating evil individuals who met his criteria.
Mass murderers who had already slain dozens, those who had abused their families to death, and sadists who took pleasure in torturing the innocent.
Thus, with her help, the Unceasing Demon Patriarch steadily cultivated the Return to Truth Scripture.
But then, the unexpected happened.
At the final stage of the ritual, his true body petrified—yet the Demon Seed, connected to the false body of the Stone Sage, remained.
There was no way to sever the umbilical cord binding the shell to his original form.
"There's no way around this."
The Unceasing Demon Patriarch, steeped in despair, spoke.
"No martial art or supernatural power can cut this Demon Seed linked to my true body."
His form, already embedded in the cliff, was fully petrified. To complete his rebirth as a saint, the Demon Seed had to be severed—but if it remained, he would suffocate within his stone prison.
"After all the effort to master a technique that severs demonic karma, to be thwarted by this..."
"Is there truly no solution?"
"There is... one."
After a long silence, the Unceasing Demon Patriarch finally spoke.
"The Martial Soul Lord. They say he wields a sword form that manipulates life itself. That technique could surely sever the Demon Seed."
He hesitated before continuing.
"But he despises evil and would never spare a demonic sect member. So in truth, there is no way to cut my Demon Seed."
"If he hates evil, isn't that perfect?"
Sim Gyeong-yoseon's eyes gleamed as she heard this.
"We can simply claim the false body connected to the Demon Seed is the real one. No one will ever realize the truth."
Afterward, she used her abilities to investigate Bu Eun-seol and his subordinates' movements.
She eventually pinpointed his location while he was investigating a dumpling shop and approached him naturally.
And when she eliminated the old man from the Flower Cloud Trading House—
She witnessed firsthand the sword form he unleashed, a technique rivaling the realm of natural harmony, radiating life force.
—That technique could sever my senior brother's Demon Seed, cut away his demonic karma, and allow him to be reborn as a saint.
As expected, Bu Eun-seol obliterated the false body in an instant.
But shockingly—
When he discovered the cliff hiding the true body and moved to investigate, she had no choice but to intervene.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you the truth from the start."
Having explained everything, Sim Gyeong-yoseon gazed at the cliff with sorrow and spoke softly.
"But if I had revealed the truth, you would never have helped him."
"You read me well."
"No!"
Desperation blazed in her eyes.
"My senior brother's cultivation has reached its final stage—his body has completely hardened into stone. He's in a chrysalis state, moments away from emerging as a true saint!"
"......"
"Since you severed the Demon Seed, he'll soon break free from that rock."
After a long silence, Bu Eun-seol finally spoke.
"That can't happen."
He shook his head, staring at the cliff.
Though his eyes held pity and regret, his voice was resolute.
"The Unceasing Demon Patriarch must die."
"But he's become a saint!"
Sim Gyeong-yoseon screamed, pointing at the Buddha-like figure carved into the stone.
"Look! Does that look like something a demonic sect member would carve?"
"Saintess."
Bu Eun-seol's gaze was solemn.
"Does that truly look like a Buddha to you?"
"What?"
"Try viewing it from another angle."
Confused, she slowly turned her head to examine the cliff from a different perspective.
The moment she did, her face drained of color.
The benevolent figure of the Buddha—
When viewed from this angle, it was unmistakably the visage of a demon, baring its fangs, eyes bulging, crawling up from hell into the human world.
"It's just a trick of perspective!"
She shook her head violently, as if denying reality, her hair whipping wildly.
"It can look different depending on the angle!"
Her voice trembled.
"If he wanted to deceive me, why would he endure the pain of mastering something as difficult as the Return to Truth Scripture? Why suffer through all those years?"
"You already know the answer."
Bu Eun-seol's voice was quiet but certain.
"The Unceasing Demon Patriarch is said to require the completion of his True Body. But no one knows how."
He raised his sword, pointing at the cliff.
"But hearing your words, it seems he must absorb both saintly and demonic karma to unleash his true power."
"Saintly and demonic? He only absorbed the karma of evil-doers!"
"If he were merely a being who fed on the life force of the wicked, why would he be called a demonic patriarch?"
Contempt flickered in Bu Eun-seol's eyes.
"In the end, he would have absorbed even your Immortal Artifact to complete his True Body. Then, he would have truly begun his reign of evil."
Sim Gyeong-yoseon shook her head, but her eyes wavered.
Deep down, she sensed the truth in his words.
"It doesn't matter if you believe me. Nothing will change."
Bu Eun-seol said no more.
Srrring.
As he raised the Ink Soul Sword, its blade caught the sunlight, radiating a cold gleam.
"No!"
"Step aside. This must be done."
Grrrrrr—
Then, a faint tremor rippled through the cliff.
As if something sealed within the stone was beginning to awaken.
Zzzzziiing.
Bu Eun-seol prepared to unleash the Ink Soul First Form once more.
"Please, I beg you!"
Ignoring her plea, Bu Eun-seol gathered his full strength to execute the Sword Form—
Whoosh.
Suddenly, he lowered the Ink Soul Blade.
"...So that's how it is."
"What do you mean?"
"It seems this is as far as we go, Fairy."
His voice was cold as winter wind.
"Your acting."