Chapter 223
Gu Hong-cheong's pupils dilated sharply as he noticed the rain of luminous points descending upon him.
Before he knew it, the shadows of his Nine Flower Flash Hands had vanished, and a fierce surge of energy from the heavens bore down on his throat.
'This is...'
He couldn't even comprehend how the martial forms had transformed.
Flicker!
A faint glimmer flashed, and the violent energy grazed past Gu Hong-cheong's body, leaving no trace behind.
"..."
Then, the two stood frozen, staring at each other as if nothing had happened.
A long silence stretched between them.
"So you had sealed your True Void."
In the end, it was Gu Hong-cheong who broke the silence first.
"All to prevent this elder from anticipating the shifts in your techniques."
Until now, Bu Eun-seol had unleashed only the demonic martial arts of Heaven-Severing, Earth-Destroying—not the Formless Heavenly Flow.
It was to keep Gu Hong-cheong from predicting his moves. Like a beast stalking its prey, he had waited for the decisive moment.
Splurt!
Suddenly, blood erupted from Gu Hong-cheong's shoulder.
The thick, crimson liquid dripped to the ground, blooming into a single flower of blood.
"But what a pity."
Gu Hong-cheong bared his sharp fangs as he glanced at the blood streaming from his shoulder.
"That your finishing strike missed its mark."
The martial form of Lament by the River that Bu Eun-seol had unleashed should have pierced Gu Hong-cheong's uvula.
Yet the razor-sharp sword aura had only torn through his shoulder. In that brief moment, he had moved his body with all his might, narrowly evading the attack.
"..."
As if he had never anticipated this strike would fail, Bu Eun-seol remained statue-still.
Huuuung.
Then, as Gu Hong-cheong extended his left hand, a bizarre vibration hummed through the air.
Simultaneously, his hand gradually took on a silvery sheen.
No longer flesh and blood, it now resembled forged metal.
Having elevated the Nine Flower Flash Hands to the Extreme Realm, his internal energy had condensed and materialized in his palms.
"Now, die!"
With a Great Roar, hundreds of silver-tinged hand aura tendrils surged toward Bu Eun-seol, aiming to pierce every inch of his body.
Had he given up entirely?
Even as the sharp hand-shadows targeted his vital points, Bu Eun-seol hung his head low, eyes shut.
Thrum.
Then, the Ink Sword began twitching violently, like a freshly caught fish struggling in the air.
Slash-slash-slash-slash!
At the same time, a pure white light radiated from Bu Eun-seol's entire body, precisely intercepting the cascading silver brilliance.
It was the Fluorescent Sword Control—an absolute defensive sword technique that reacted to killing intent.
Clang-clang-clang!
As the Ink Sword clashed repeatedly with the hand aura, a deafening metallic clamor tore through the air.
"What?!"
Gu Hong-cheong was so stunned his body jerked back when his ultimate technique was blocked.
He had never imagined Bu Eun-seol could withstand the intricate, delicate forms of the Nine Flower Flash Hands at such close range.
'I was waiting for this.'
At that moment, Bu Eun-seol's eyes snapped open, blazing with radiant light.
He had already anticipated the failure of Lament by the River.
After all, if even Gwang-yeon had evaded it, how could it possibly land on Gu Hong-cheong, who was many times stronger?
—To perfectly execute Lament by the River, you must close the distance and create an unexpected opening.
Enlightened by Gwang-yeon's words, Bu Eun-seol had spent countless hours in deep meditation, refining the technique's flaws.
Extreme Heaven Realm.
It was not just about transcending the body's limits—it was a state where one could dominate the infinitesimal fragments of time and space through Spirit and Mind.
Like the heavens gazing down upon the earth, one could perceive the opponent's martial arts, movements, and even the underlying principles of their techniques.
Which meant that unless Gu Hong-cheong let his guard down for even a split second, Bu Eun-seol would never be able to drive his sword into the Beggar King's body.
Mid-meditation, Bu Eun-seol suddenly recalled that Gu Hong-cheong was a master who wielded both hands as weapons.
What if, at point-blank range, he could seize the moment when Gu Hong-cheong was certain of victory? And what if, in that arrogance...
He could definitely bury Lament by the River into his flesh.
A gap in the Spirit and Mind.
No matter what anyone said, the Beggar King was a master who stood a step above him.
To defeat such an opponent, surpassing him in martial techniques alone wasn't enough. He had to shatter his mental state—create a fleeting opening in his focus.
And this realization was only possible because Bu Eun-seol had mastered the Emotion Severing Secret Art of the Demonic Heavenly Emperor.
Flash!
Having deflected all of the Nine Flower Flash Hands with Fluorescent Sword Control, the Ink Sword blazed with light once more.
This strike came at a speed and timing Gu Hong-cheong could never evade.
Thud!
With a dull sound, the tip of the Ink Sword smoothly pierced Gu Hong-cheong's chest.
Thump-thump-thump.
Gu Hong-cheong gripped the blade, but it had already sunk in by about a foot.
At last, Lament by the River had struck true.
"Heh-heh..."
But then, something astonishing happened.
Despite being impaled through the Middle Mansion Acupoint—a vital point that should have paralyzed his body—Gu Hong-cheong unleashed the Subduing Dragon Palm with his right hand, slamming it into Bu Eun-seol's chest.
It was so abrupt, and with the Ink Sword still trapped in his left hand, Fluorescent Sword Control couldn't activate in time.
'I can't dodge!'
Zzzing!
At that moment, a faint golden light flickered around Bu Eun-seol's body.
Faced with an unavoidable attack, he forcibly unleashed the Willful True Binding once more.
BOOM!
With a thunderous blast, Bu Eun-seol was sent flying over a hundred feet away.
Sssk—
Blood, dark as rust, spilled from his lips as he skidded back, still gripping his sword.
Fortunately, the slight activation of the Willful True Binding had spared him from certain death.
But that was all.
His vision blurred, and with every breath, it felt as though his body were being torn into a thousand pieces.
Moreover, the forced consecutive activations of the Willful True Binding seemed to have allowed a sinister fog to creep relentlessly into his mind.
Ptui.
As Bu Eun-seol spat out another thick glob of blood, Gu Hong-cheong curled his lips in satisfaction.
"You didn't know I'd mastered the Soft Hedgehog Secret, did you?"
His skin had turned deathly pale, and his eyes burned with an eerie blue flame.
"I'll drag you down to the underworld with me."
He looked like a centuries-old demonic spirit possessing a human corpse.
The Soft Hedgehog Secret...
Only then did Bu Eun-seol understand how Gu Hong-cheong could remain unharmed even after being skewered by the sword.
The Soft Hedgehog Secret.
A lost forbidden art of the Beggars' Sect.
At the moment of receiving a fatal wound, the practitioner severs their own Eight Extraordinary Meridians, turning themselves into a half-corpse.
In that state, they experience a brief resurgence of life—terminal lucidity—and use that fleeting power to strike back in a final act of mutual destruction.
"I'll kill you within half a quarter-hour!"
Gu Hong-cheong's internal power was so immense that even after using the Soft Hedgehog Secret, he could sustain his life for more than half a quarter-hour.
Shwaaaaa—!
His Nine Flash Hands, infused with every last drop of his vitality, turned the world into a canvas of hand shadows.
If all those shadows descended at once, Bu Eun-seol's body would be erased without a trace.
—Why didn't you learn it?
Time seemed to freeze. Then, a strange echo reverberated inside Bu Eun-seol's skull.
—Why did you reject the Emotion Severing Secret Art? Had you mastered it, victory would've been effortless.
The Willful True Binding, which allowed the materialization of true qi into any form, required complete mastery of the Emotion Severing Secret Art to be used freely.
But Bu Eun-seol had refused. He couldn't bring himself to erase the emotions—the last legacy left by Bu Jan-yang.
—Sentiment? What use is that?
The voice in his mind was hollow, devoid of even the faintest trace of emotion.
It was likely his own voice—the voice of a Bu Eun-seol stripped of all feeling.
—If you die here, it'll all be meaningless.
A fair point.
If he died—if this moment became the final stop of his life—what use was sentiment?
BOOM—!
In that instant, Gu Hong-cheong's Nine Flash Hands, woven across the world, crashed down upon Bu Eun-seol.
"No...!"
Gu Hong-cheong's smug grin vanished, his eyes bulging wide.
The Nine Flash Star Annihilation Transformation—his ultimate technique, into which he had poured every ounce of his strength. The moment it coiled around Bu Eun-seol, his body should have disintegrated into dust.
Yet there he stood, unfazed, as if merely brushing off a breeze.
"That's...!"
Upon closer inspection, a spherical radiance enveloped Bu Eun-seol's body.
Zzzt—!
Black lightning crackled within that dark glow.
Now it was clear—the black energy shrouding his body had annihilated the Nine Flash Star Annihilation Transformation in an instant.
"Impossible!"
With a desperate roar, Gu Hong-cheong unleashed the Dragon-Subduing Palm, aiming to crush Bu Eun-seol's skull.
CRACK—!
But the moment his palm struck, an explosive force rebounded, sending Gu Hong-cheong hurtling backward instead.
Guh—!
Coughing up black blood, Gu Hong-cheong stared at Bu Eun-seol in disbelief.
"What... is that?"
He finally saw it.
The moment his Dragon-Subduing Palm struck Bu Eun-seol's head, an overwhelming surge of black true qi had coiled around his arms and flung him back.
"What the hell is that?!"
Instead of answering, Bu Eun-seol stepped forward.
Step. Step.
His slow, deliberate gait was like the embodiment of Death itself—
Advancing to consume the very existence of Gu Hong-cheong.
Swish.
Bu Eun-seol suddenly extended his hand toward Gu Hong-cheong.
Darkened true qi burrowed into his meridians.
"Guh—!"
Gu Hong-cheong convulsed, screaming in agony as if invisible fingers were gripping his already fraying Eight Extraordinary Meridians, tearing them apart one by one.
"Ugh...!"
The pain was excruciating, yet paradoxically, his breathing grew easier.
Bu Eun-seol was forcibly mending his shattered meridians with the black qi.
"What... are you doing?"
Bu Eun-seol stared down at him, cold and impassive.
"You must remain alive to keep feeling the pain."
His voice held not a shred of emotion.
"Death would end it all too easily."
Bu Eun-seol was prolonging his suffering—keeping him alive solely to endure torment.
Death God.
Before Gu Hong-cheong's eyes stood a figure clad in black radiance, an emotionless Grim Reaper.
"You've succumbed to demonic nature."
Gu Hong-cheong instantly grasped Bu Eun-seol's condition.
"You trained in some twisted Heart-Seal Method of the Demonic Path... and fell into an inner demon."
Inner Demon.
Two opposing natures had always coexisted within Bu Eun-seol.
His original nature—frozen as a Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Crystal.
And the humanity Bu Jan-yang had planted within him.
But in this moment of crisis, the repeated use of the Emotion Severing Secret Art had destabilized the foundation of his spirit and mind, plunging him into the abyss of an inner demon.
"How noisy."
Zzzzt—!
Bu Eun-seol amplified the black qi surging through Gu Hong-cheong's body, causing his flesh to wither like a desiccated corpse.
Using the Willful True Binding, he was forcibly expelling all of Gu Hong-cheong's internal energy from his body.
"GAAAH—!"
Gu Hong-cheong's scream was pure agony.
Forcibly expelling one's qi was dozens of times more excruciating than having one's dantian destroyed and internal power scattered.
"Ugh... UGH—!"
As Gu Hong-cheong writhed in torment, Bu Eun-seol's lips curled into a faint smile.
His pupils had turned pitch black, and an energy capable of tearing heaven and earth swirled violently through his entire body.
The original coldness of his nature had been utterly erased by the descent into his inner demon, transforming him into a cruel demonkin.
"Ughhh..."
At that moment, Gu Hong-cheong, writhing in agony, tore at his own clothes.
His once-muscular frame had withered into a skeletal husk as his internal power drained away.
"Ghhh..."
As he curled in on himself, his emaciated spine jutted out sharply.
—Seol-a, can't sleep?
Thump.
The sight of that bony back sent a violent tremor through Bu Eun-seol's gaze.
Memories of childhood—those predawn hours when knee pain would jolt him awake.
Every time he sat up in pain, he would see that broad, parched back.
—This old man will carry you. Then you'll sleep well.
And above that dry back, the kindly smiling face of Bu Jan-yang would appear.
Shudder.
Bu Eun-seol clutched his forehead, trembling.
For a brief moment, the warmth of Bu Jan-yang's past smile cleared his mind.
"Ugh..."
Veins bulged across Bu Eun-seol's face as he groaned.
A thick, clinging black mist still seemed to shroud his vision.
No matter how hard he struggled to regain his senses, it felt like drowning in an inescapable swamp.
Yet in his mind, that gentle smile lingered. The faint, comforting yet sour scent still seemed to fill his nose.
—Become a blade.
The kindly grandfather's voice abruptly shifted—into the solemn, low tone of the Supreme Cult Commander, Yeop Hyo-cheon.
—If you wish to become the successor who leads the Demon Hall, it would be wise to erase notions like comradeship and affection.
Then it morphed once more—into the eerily colorless voice of the Demonic Heavenly Emperor.
—Such things will soon become nothing but cumbersome baggage blocking your path...
'Was this all intentional?'
A flash of insight cut through his thoughts.
Had obtaining the Emotion Severing Secret Art not been mere coincidence, but part of a scheme—
To forge him into a sharpened blade, orchestrated by either the Demonic Heavenly Emperor or Yeop Hyo-cheon?
'Did they think they could control me as they pleased?'
Crack.
Bu Eun-seol's fists clenched so tightly his knuckles whitened.
Not black qi, but a crimson blood-light surged from his pupils.
'No more...'
He began resisting the Emotion Severing Secret Art's grip on his spirit and mind with everything he had.
'I will no longer be manipulated by anyone!'
Boom! Boom!
Simultaneously, shockwaves of true qi erupted from his body with deafening tremors.
As his mind clashed against the Emotion Severing Secret Art's hold, the conflict manifested physically.
Drip, drip, drip.
Before he knew it, black blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
At the same time, his eyes gradually cleared, and the dark qi enveloping his body began to thin.
At last, he had broken free from the inner demon on his own.
"To escape an inner demon by sheer will..."
Gu Hong-cheong, watching this unfold, gaped in disbelief.
Even the grandmasters who once ruled the martial world, once consumed by demonic nature, would fall beyond redemption—
Yet not only had this man recognized his own descent into the inner demon, but he had emerged unaided?
"Truly..."
Leaning against a rock, gasping for breath, Gu Hong-cheong let out a sigh.
"A lucky bastard, aren't you?"
At that moment, Bu Eun-seol, now fully lucid, shook his head.
"Not luck."
And then he straightened his back with unshaken dignity.
All the advanced martial arts he had mastered.
The trials he had endured. The insights and realizations forged in battles that straddled death.
All of it dwelled within his body and spirit.
And when faced with crisis, they had converged into a guiding light, leading him to the right path.
"Ghk—!"
Suddenly, Gu Hong-cheong coughed up black blood.
His body, having used the Soft Hedgehog Secret Art, was already no different from a corpse.
Bu Eun-seol had forcibly sealed his meridians with dark qi to sustain his life moments ago.
But now that it was gone, he was slowly dying.
"To die by the hands of a brat like you... what a shame..."
As death approached, Gu Hong-cheong's gaze dimmed.
Yet, for some reason, a faint smile touched his lips.
"But this way, that bastard Hae-pung won't become Sect Chief either. Heheheh."
His laughter was wet with phlegm.
"He won't escape accusations of making a deal with the successor of the Demonic Path Ten Gates, selling out the Supreme Elder."
His lifelong ambition had been to lead the Beggars' Sect.
But Hae-pung had betrayed him, shattering that dream.
He hated Hae-pung even more than he hated Bu Eun-seol.
"Don't celebrate too soon, brat."
Gu Hong-cheong's voice was low.
"Your true strength has only just touched the threshold of the Extreme Heaven Realm. To kill an elder of my standing with that..."
He took a labored breath before continuing.
"From now on, you'll be hunted by those who covet the fame of the Four Gods and Seven Kings—until you're finally killed. Hahaha!"
After hurling this curse, Gu Hong-cheong laughed in grim satisfaction.
"I may die... but Hae-pung loses the Sect Chief position, and you? You'll never claim a seat among the Four Gods and Seven Kings..."
His words ended there.
His pupils stilled.
Thud.
Gu Hong-cheong's corpse collapsed to the ground.
Thus ended the final moments of the Beggar King, Gu Hong-cheong—once a terror of the martial world, one of the Four Gods and Seven Kings.
"..."
Even in death, his cold smile remained fixed on Bu Eun-seol.
—You'll die soon too. Hunted by those who seek the fame of the Four Gods and Seven Kings!
The echo of his voice seemed to linger in Bu Eun-seol's ears.
"That won't happen."
Bu Eun-seol gazed down at the corpse and spoke coldly.
"I desire nothing."
He and Gu Hong-cheong were different.
Glory, authority... he neither craved nor clung to any of it.
He pursued the Martial Way with nothing more—quietly and solemnly, like an ascetic who had just begun his penance.
In that moment, the self-assured laughter that had lingered at Gu Hong-cheong's mouth vanished.
As if his soul, before leaving his body, had heard Bu Eun-seol's unwavering words.