Chapter 1284
Clank.
Bu Eun-seol planted the Ink Soul Sword vertically before him and repeated with a grave expression:
"Step aside."
"So you finally reveal your true colors."
The armored warrior gripped his greatsword and solemnly declared:
"Slash!"
Bu Eun-seol sensed something and twisted his body swiftly—but in that instant, the impossible happened.
Sshhk!
A sudden spray of blood erupted from his shoulder.
......!
He had merely uttered the word "slash"—yet he had wounded the body of a martial artist of such caliber?
Could it be that this man was not an imperial guard of the royal palace, but a demonic sorcerer wielding dark arts?
Drip, drip.
Bu Eun-seol glanced down at his shoulder.
The diagonal gash was deep—had his Body Protection True Qi been even slightly weaker, his arm would have been severed clean off.
"Your internal energy exceeds ten sixty-year measure," the armored warrior remarked, his expression one of intrigue.
"With that level of cultivation, you could have succeeded by mastering the secret teachings of the Immortal Way. Why, then, do you seek to infiltrate the Forbidden Zone of the imperial family?"
"What the imperial family calls a Forbidden Zone," Bu Eun-seol said, tightening his grip on the Ink Soul Sword, "is merely the place where I can reclaim the my lost personal history."
Zzziiing!
At that moment, the scenery within the Grand Hall blurred, its colors gradually draining away.
The Domain of World and Realm Annihilation had spontaneously unfolded in response to the overwhelming force.
"What a bizarre technique!"
Whoosh!
As the armored warrior sensed the domain, he swung his greatsword—and something astonishing occurred.
The Domain of World and Realm Annihilation, which had been slowly expanding, was now being repelled like a gust of wind.
"An impressive technique, but it hasn't fully taken root yet."
The warrior's words carried admiration—not just for Bu Eun-seol's attainment of the pinnacle of martial arts, but also for his insight that the young man had only recently ascended to the Void-Piercing Realm.
"Given how you withstand the surging Dragon Qi, you must possess a treasure passed down through generations of the imperial family."
Whoosh!
In an instant, the warrior closed the distance, leveling his massive greatsword at Bu Eun-seol's neck.
"Then I'll kill you and retrieve it. Slash!"
Shiiing!
Sparks erupted near Bu Eun-seol's shoulder as he deflected the unseen slash with a lightning-fast swing of the Ink Soul Sword.
"So it's Myriad Forms One Style."
The armored warrior narrowed his eyes, recognizing the principle behind Bu Eun-seol's technique—the Reversal Force of Half Ascent and Half Descent, which materialized and repelled an intangible attack.
"Given that your swordsmanship differs, it seems you didn't inherit this from the old man Xuanyuan—you merely imitated it."
"......"
"To think you possess the skill to survive under his blade."
Bu Eun-seol found this strange.
Though the warrior's face was obscured by his helm, his eyes suggested he was no older than his late forties.
If, at that age, he guarded the imperial family's secret vaults, he must have risen through the ranks at an extraordinary pace, earning the emperor's trust.
Yet he spoke as if he had once shared an era with the Sword Sovereign himself.
"Given how you fire slashes from your mouth, you're no imperial guard—you're more like a Taoist sorcerer wielding miscellaneous arts."
Bu Eun-seol deliberately provoked him with a mocking smile.
"Do you not use talismans?"
Flash!
The warrior's eyes blazed with fury from within his helmet.
CRACK!
Simultaneously, he lunged forward, swinging his colossal blade directly at Bu Eun-seol's neck.
It was a deliberate, exaggerated motion—imbued with overwhelming force, as if daring him to block it.
CLANG! BOOM!
As their weapons collided midair, sparks erupted, and shockwaves rippled outward in concentric circles.
Bu Eun-seol did not shy away from the clash of raw power.
Creak—creak—creak.
The two stood locked in a contest of strength, their weapons pressed against each other like third-rate martial artists.
But this was no mere test of brute force—
It was the power of the Domain of World and Realm Annihilation, wielded by Bu Eun-seol,
And the mysterious energy employed by the armored warrior, colliding through their weapons.
'As I thought.'
Fzzzt!
Bu Eun-seol sensed something and deliberately disengaged, pulling back.
"Slash!"
At the warrior's shout, blood sprayed from Bu Eun-seol's forearm.
'So that's how it is.'
A peculiar glint flickered in Bu Eun-seol's eyes as he stared at the warrior.
Through this clash, he had discerned the nature of the man's techniques—and his true identity.
"You employ the Absolute Boundary in a fascinating way."
The terrifying aspect of the warrior's attacks was this:
They did not begin when he uttered the word "slash"—they had already concluded before he spoke.
In other words, he didn't need to shout the word to unleash his strikes.
Yet he insisted on crying out "slash" because—
"You were detonating accumulated sword energy primed by your voice."
From the moment the warrior had stepped into this Grand Hall,
The warrior had transformed the entire interior—including the ley lines coursing with Dragon Qi—into an Absolute Boundary.
This space was packed with invisible sword energy, like gunpowder awaiting ignition.
And the instant he shouted "slash," a shockwave akin to a Lion's Roar erupted,
Firing the accumulated sword energy like arrows that pierced Bu Eun-seol's body.
"Are you from the Sacred Domain?"
To Bu Eun-seol's knowledge, the only technique capable of partitioning space by harnessing the energy of ley lines
Was the Absolute Boundary of the Sacred Domain—used by the Oathbound.
"The Sacred Domain?"
The warrior tilted his head slightly, eyes flashing.
"What's that?"
"You deny it?"
"What nonsense are you spouting?"
The warrior snorted.
"Fine."
Zzziiing.
Bu Eun-seol lowered the Ink Soul Sword and fully released the Domain of World and Realm Annihilation, which he had been struggling to maintain.
"Then I'll see for myself."
Flash!
A radiant beam erupted from the Ink Soul Sword, instantly illuminating the entire Grand Hall.
He had unleashed Harmonization.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"
The armored warrior began swinging his massive greatsword like a windmill.
As he did so, the radiant light of Harmonization gradually faded before vanishing completely in an instant.
Flash! Flash!
Bu Eun-seol continuously poured forth Harmonization.
The Harmonization he was unleashing now was not the explosive power of annihilation through unity that he had employed before.
Instead, it carried the Way of Nature—like trees silently guarding the forest or pebbles rolling along the roadside.
Just as when he had dealt with the Human Poison of Tap Mok-geuk, the former Deputy Hall Lord of the Poison Spirit Hall in the True Demon Palace.
Through infinite circulation, he endlessly channeled Harmonization.
"HYAAH!"
With a furious roar, the armored warrior pierced through the luminous membrane of Harmonization.
He thrust his left finger like lightning toward Bu Eun-seol's glabella.
Though it seemed like a formidable martial technique,
in truth, he was employing a bizarre Art of Spells that nullified both Harmonization and all the power Bu Eun-seol possessed.
Whoosh!
Blocking the attack, Bu Eun-seol's body flew backward like a withered leaf, powerless.
In the split second the armored warrior unleashed his mysterious spell,
Bu Eun-seol had clad himself in the power of World and Realm Annihilation and evaded backward.
Thud!
As Bu Eun-seol staggered back weakly,
the armored warrior, sensing victory,
dashed at blinding speed behind him and drove his massive greatsword in with full force.
Squelch.
Amidst a spray of blood, the enormous greatsword pierced through Bu Eun-seol's back, its tip jutting out from his front.
Yet Bu Eun-seol did not die.
He had intercepted the greatsword with his side, pressing it tightly against his body.
"......!"
Just as the armored warrior froze in shock,
Crackle, crackle.
Fine fissures began spreading across the greatsword embedded in Bu Eun-seol's side.
Fssst, clink.
Before long, the greatsword had transformed into transparent chains.
The Chain of Reincarnation.
The armored warrior had concealed the Chain within the blade of his greatsword,
wielding it to bypass even the Domain of World and Realm Annihilation.
"So that's how it was."
Bu Eun-seol's eyes gleamed with certainty as he regarded the armored warrior.
"You're the missing successor of the Sacred Domain."
Clink, clatter.
At that moment, the chains hidden within the greatsword began adhering to Bu Eun-seol's arm and chest.
The chains possessed a property of restoration, pulling entangled objects back together.
Thud, thud.
The armored warrior yanked the chains with all his might, but Bu Eun-seol stood unmoved, his expression unreadable.
The armored warrior's eyes behind his visor flickered violently.
Surely he knew what the chains were—so why was this man standing there so calmly?
BOOM!
In that instant, the armored warrior's massive frame was sent flying backward as if struck by a colossal hammer, crashing to the ground.
In his desperate effort to keep the chains from being taken,
the Counterforce of all three chains' power had rebounded onto him.
Crash.
The armored warrior hurtled to the far end of the Grand Hall, collapsing through a wall as he fell.
Fortunately, the Absolute Boundary laid here prevented the tremors and noise from leaking outside.
"......."
The armored warrior seemed to have lost consciousness momentarily, sprawled motionless on his back.
Had Bu Eun-seol wished to eliminate him, this would have been the perfect opportunity.
But he simply turned away.
He owed a debt to the Old Man of the Sacred Domain—and more importantly, he had realized this warrior was not tainted by evil.
Clink, slither.
The chains embedded in the armored warrior's greatsword gradually absorbed into Bu Eun-seol's body.
Absurdly, he had obtained yet another fragment of the Chain with ease.
'No time.'
There wasn't even a moment to savor this acquisition.
Clank.
Bu Eun-seol pushed open the square iron door the armored warrior had guarded and stepped inside.
"This is—"
An astonishing sight greeted him.
Floating stones containing knowledge drifted amid a cosmic landscape—identical to what he had seen in the Baekri Clan Secret Vault.
"Primordial Dragon."
Bu Eun-seol clenched his fist.
These stones must hold the knowledge he had long sought—the secrets of the Primordial Dragon and its contract.
Otherwise, they wouldn't be floating within this hidden door said to be connected to it.
"So there's knowledge I must acquire before entering."
Thud.
Without hesitation, Bu Eun-seol pressed his hand against the stone.
Whoosh.
In that instant, a breathtaking vision of nature unfolded before his eyes.
A single tree he had once overlooked, fallen leaves scattered on the roadside.
Within each of these forms lay
eternal truths and incomparable wonders beyond description.
As nameless epiphanies and euphoria surged,
mystical knowledge flooded into Bu Eun-seol's mind.
Since the primordial era, before the boundaries of heaven and earth had solidified,
the Primordial Dragon had fought the True Demon.
It was not a literal dragon.
Rather, it referred to the ancient martial artists—the Creation-Era Martial Artists—who had opposed the True Demon.
They were beings who interpreted the Mandate of Heaven,
entities who possessed human forms yet transcended human limits.
But the True Demon grew stronger with time.
Initially, it had been nothing more than the Demon Buddha, who mastered dark dharma gates.
Through endless defeats and accumulated knowledge,
it gradually merged with the principles of the world, ascending to realms they could never reach.
No power could wound it, and even when they barely managed to cut it down,
it would be reborn, ultimately seizing victory.
The battle between the Creation-Era Martial Artists and the True Demon was endless, and with time, even the means to resist vanished.
At last, they reached a single conclusion.
—"The only thing capable of destroying the True Demon is the True Demon's own knowledge."
—"We must absorb that knowledge to weaken his power and find a way to eradicate him."
—"This method will require an exceedingly long time. If destroying the True Demon in this era proves impossible, then there is only one solution."
—"In the end... we have no choice but to pass the conclusion to future generations."
For this method to succeed, they needed two things:
A forbidden art that would allow them to divide and absorb the knowledge of the reincarnating True Demon, greatly diminishing his power—
And successors who could continuously deal with the True Demon as he was reborn, while they took the time to digest that knowledge.
The Creation-Era Martial Artists pooled their strength to devise this forbidden art and prepare the ritual.
They erected formations modeled after celestial constellations, tore open the earth to expose the bloodlines beneath, and unleashed a spell that would use the True Demon's intellect, memories, and very existence as a sacrifice.
But wielding such a spell demanded a price.
To absorb the True Demon's knowledge—
They willingly embraced a celestial curse upon their own bodies.
The curse of never seeing the light again.
The curse of being unable to live among the people of the world, forced to descend into the underground realm.
The Absolute Boundary.
Originally, it referred to the divide between the dwelling place of the Creation-Era Martial Artists and the mortal world—
But in truth, it was also the name of a forbidden art, perfected in the primordial age, that cleaved one world from another.
The space partitioned by the Absolute Boundary was severed from the heavens, its flow of time distorted beyond recognition.
Once entered, no spell could ever bring one back—it was a realm of complete isolation.
The martial artists of the primordial age, the Creation-Era Martial Artists, willingly stepped inside.
They had to digest the True Demon's knowledge within the Absolute Boundary and find a way to annihilate him.
And to ensure the Absolute Boundary was maintained from the outside—
To cultivate successors who would ceaselessly monitor and eliminate each newly reborn True Demon—
They squeezed out the last of their strength to birth a single great family.
That family was the Baekri Clan.
Contrary to legend, the Baekri Clan was neither born of divine mandate nor founded by their own hands.
They were merely created by the Creation-Era Martial Artists—
A means to suppress the resurgence of the True Demon while they deciphered the knowledge and sought his eradication.
—"No matter how noble a saint may be."
—"No matter how righteous a person upholding a sacred duty may seem."
—"No one remains unchanged before the flow of time."
They foresaw that, over the long centuries of battle, even the Baekri Clan would eventually falter.
Thus, instead of directly empowering the Baekri Clan, the Creation-Era Martial Artists established a safeguard—
A binding contract to ensure their decrees were carried out without fail.
That was the "Contract with the Primordial Dragon."
However, if this truth were ever revealed to the Baekri Clan—
If they learned they were merely a family created by another, that even their sacred mission was imposed upon them—
The crushing realization that they were nothing but puppets might drive them to despair.
And so, they concealed the truth completely.
Pretending instead to be an ancient lineage that had opposed the True Demon since the dawn of time.
Flash!
With the sensation of being sucked back into reality, Bu Eun-seol's consciousness returned.
At last, he had reached it—
The hidden secret of the Baekri Clan, the truth of their contract with the Primordial Dragon.
Sssshhh—
When he stepped outside, the door he had entered had vanished without a trace.
Krrrumble—
At the same time, another massive iron gate materialized beside where the door had been.
The door he had entered—
Had merely been a chamber housing the stone that imparted knowledge of the Primordial Dragon.
"The Primordial Dragon."
Bu Eun-seol took a deep breath.
Though it had existed since the dawn of time and wielded immense power, it was merely represented as a dragon—
But in truth, those who had fought the True Demon in the primordial age were not gods or heaven, but the ancient martial artists.
And the Baekri Clan had merely borrowed the power they left behind to battle a weakened True Demon.
"In the end, it wasn't the Baekri Clan who opposed the True Demon—it was the Creation-Era Martial Artists."
Bu Eun-seol's expression turned distant.
"Now I understand why the Empress Dowager was so desperate to seize control of the Imperial Palace."
Without eliminating the Heavenly Might Secret Army, which guarded the palace, and the Heavenly Emperor Command, which protected the royal family, taking the Imperial Palace by force was impossible.
That was why, the moment someone capable of controlling the Heavenly Emperor Command through the Dragon-Phoenix Ring was identified—
She must have planned to eliminate them and usurp the throne.
And if she fully seized the Imperial Palace?
Dragon Qi—
The power said to be inherited by the royal bloodline, those who bore the virtue of heaven—
She could have obtained it.
And with it, she could have forged a new contract with the ancient martial artists—
The Creation-Era Martial Artists, who had absorbed the True Demon's knowledge and now lay in wait, coiled like serpents, to destroy him.
"But the Empress Dowager is a Master of the True Demon Palace—she shouldn't be able to renew the contract...?"
There was a flaw in this reasoning.
As a Master of the True Demon Palace, the Empress Dowager could not possibly form a contract with the Primordial Dragon, the very origin of the Baekri Clan.
Yet why had she still sought to claim the Primordial Gate?
Why had she attempted to usurp the throne alone, without the True Demon Palace's support?
And if the True Demon Palace knew of this—
Why hadn't they stormed the Imperial Palace and invaded this Primordial Gate?
"Is it simply because of the Dragon Qi?"
Even Soul-Demon Magic Energy could not erase Dragon Qi.
But surely the True Demon Palace wouldn't abandon the Gate of Primordial Beginning for such a simple reason.
"The Empress Dowager must have a secret."
When the Emperor deposed her, he didn't execute her—he merely confined her to the Cold Palace.
The most likely explanation was that she still possessed something he needed to extract.
"So even the Emperor isn't righteous."
Bu Eun-seol let out a deep sigh.
Despite knowing the Empress Dowager coveted the Primordial Gate, the Emperor had only passively defended against her until now.
Perhaps the Emperor, too—
Harbored ambitions no different from hers.
"Na Baek-hu wasn't a Thousand-household Commander—he was the Commander."
The Emperor had never even revealed the true identity of his most trusted subordinate.
In other words, he had been moving pieces across the board, treating even Bu Eun-seol as nothing more than a pawn.
"He may have even used Grand Secretary Yu Jeong-pung to draw me in."
Bu Eun-seol had thought that even if the Emperor wasn't a sage ruler, he was at least a wise one.
But judging by his actions thus far, the likelihood of that was nearly nonexistent.
"Does the Emperor know of this place's existence and is deliberately concealing it?"
Just then, a low voice spoke from behind him.
"Far from it. The Emperor doesn't even know this gate exists at all."
Startled, Bu Eun-seol turned his head—
Only to see the armored warrior, who had been collapsed moments ago, now fully conscious and standing tall, glaring straight at him.